Arc The Avenger
by Nightshayed
Summary: The Arc family has split, some turned to crime others fell. A dark turn of events leads a battle worn Jaune to beacon to become a Hunter. His main aim being the destruction of the white fang and Torchwick too if the need arises.
1. Chapter 1

He opened his eyes. Startled he snapped his head from left to right, nervous from the memories before sighing and settling back into his seat. The bullhead flew steadily to beacon, an uneventful trip, he turned his head slightly to listen to the announcement. Roman Torchwick it seemed had been busy. He allowed the corners of his mouth to twitch up slightly in amusement, it seemed the vale police were more concerned about this nefarious criminal than the organisation he had been hunting. Good, better to keep the police targeted at this flamboyant amateur than at his targets, the white fang, lest they get in his way. As quickly as his smile began did he mercilessly kill it as another new bulletin took over. News of a Faunus protest turning violent as the white fang got involved. Typical, he sneered to himself. The scum moved in the shadows and hid within the civilian populace, hardly helping their cause for equal rights if they alienate the population and creature further racism. What were they truly after? Was it equality or is it the destruction of the human race? The destruction of the cities?

He shook his head as he tried to focus on his task at hand. Dust robberies by Roman Torchwick and violence by the white fang wasn't new to vale or any kingdom. Roman had become quite infamous as of late, it seems the goons he hires are getting better, that or he has found a new group to work with. The white fang? He shook his head, dispelling the unpleasant thoughts, they would never work with a human and Torchwick is about as racist as you can get, there is no way they could be working together. So why did it feel so wrong with Torchwicks increased activity in vale as well as the numerous white fang raids occurring as of late? For these reasons Jaune enrolled in beacon, he will find out the truth should it even cost him his life, the white fang would pay.

The new bulletin ended as prematurely as it began with the screen being occupied by a mature yet attractive huntress. He smirked admiring the hologram, perhaps this little trip wouldn't be a waste of time after all, least he would get some eye candy. Only paying half attention to her announcement, Jaune scanned his surroundings. Scores of aspiring hunters and huntresses' stood and sat around the bullhead, some talking loudly and others sitting alone and looking more nervous than they had any right too. Its only beacon after all, he smirked to himself at how insane he would seem if he mused that phrase outload. To students like these, beacon was perhaps the biggest test of their lives. To Jaune, it was just another inconvenience he had to go through to track his targets. To his right was the exit, a wide corridor with a massive opening hatch, made of plain metal of a kind he didn't know. Air conditioners in the roof to keep the bullhead cool and velvet seats at the edges of the airship. Opposite him a large screen like window portrayed vale as the bullhead sailed overhead. A beautiful city no doubt, stretching as far as the eye could see, but what corruption lies beneath? Well it couldn't be worse than vacuo.

Noise disrupted his thinking as he turned to see a flash of colours, yellow and red in an embrace. The taller blonde clearly ecstatic about something as the smaller red girl tried and failed to play it off as something normal. His eyes narrowed as he admired the pair, the blonde was tall, smaller than him but still tall for a woman. She projected an air of confidence around her as well as her stunning looks, it seems he wasn't the only man having an eyeful. Of course, the other students reason for looking differed from his. She was a complete contrast to the smaller red character, looking jittery like the wind would blow her over. Nervous his mind helpfully supplied, but there was something about her eyes, he squinted a little to get a better look. With an exasperated sigh he turned back and strolled away. Silver eyes huh? What game are you playing Ozpin?

The doors opened and an eager body of students rushed off onto the sprawling courtyard of beacon academy, some looking nervous, others confident, the rare few looking unaffected. He pondered if they truly were or if it was just an act, perhaps some had seen a life like his, perhaps not. Only time would tell. With a silent sigh he dragged himself to his feet and wondered onto the courtyard as one of the last to leave.

Standing just off from the raised landing platform he categorised his surroundings, a long pathway leading into the large tower like structure that reached the clouds themselves. Scanning his eyes from left to right he noted smaller structures. Probably dorms and classrooms he mused as he took a leisurely stroll down the ramp onto the main path that lead into the building.

He placed his hands into his pockets in an attempt to look as natural as possible, hoping the hoody and jeans would make him seem more like the awkward teenager he once was. He looked up into the blistering sun and groaned, clearly wearing far too much for this type of weather and headed towards the main building hoping to get out of the sweltering heat.

A sudden noise caught his attention and he crouched, hand reaching to Crocea Mors, his trusted weapon over the years. Eyes scanning the area for an attack it took him several minutes to recover and relax. Was that?... an explosion? Attempting to steady his beating heart he headed with purpose towards the perpetrators of the sound, hand grasping at the hilt of his blade almost shaking from the strength of his grip as he entered a clearing.

"Dust" he sneered, how he hated the stuff. You could only be burned or blew up by the accursed stuff before you got sick of the sight of it, the very thought of it made him cringe. His eyes narrowed in on the ones responsible. Red and white, oh little red it seems you are destined to curse my day.

Little red lay on her back after apparently causing the explosion and taking the brunt of it. White stood with a haughty air about her and stormed off with her entourage following. With a low curse to himself he adopted a skip to his step, a goofy smile and walked casually towards the downed figure. Better to make some friends he thought, that way he can blend in more naturally. An acquaintance or a few, that's what he needed, people to let him blend in easily without getting too involved in his affairs.

"welcome to beacon" red said, void of emotion. Well it seemed like someone's day wasn't going well.

"hey, I'm Jaune" he said offering his hand.

"Ruby" she responds allowing him to help her up. She weighs next to nothing! Jaune thinks as he she jumps away from him and brushes her combat skirt down…

Really? he gives it a deadpan look. How are you supposed to fight in that? Holding back a sigh he gives her a half smile "so… first time being on the end of a dust explosion?" He tries, faking a smile.

Poor red, or was it Ruby? Shuffles a bit on her feet and groans at him "so you saw that then?"

He smirks "most of the student body probably did". Smirking to himself as she buries her head in her hands and says something about normal knees? "do you know where we are supposed to go or?.." Jaune lets the question hang in the air as Ruby looks around nervously. Could be looking for yellow he thinks.

"I don't know… do you think there is a map?" she asks, still looking around.

A small shrug is his answer a he points down the path leading to the spiral tower reaching into the sky. "Most of the others went down there, perhaps we should follow?"

Ruby tilted her head for a minute and regarded him. Shit he thought, too robotic?

Eventually she smiled and nodded "Sure!" she exclaimed as she took the lead, Jaune in tow as they headed towards the tower.

After a few moments of silence Ruby looks at Jaune out of the corner of her eye "soooooooo ive got this thing" deploying her massive reaper looking scythe making Jaune once again grip Crocea Mors but quickly letting go as he remembered this wasn't an attack.

"hmm that's a rather large scythe" he said in a voice void of emotion as he eyed the weapon, the bloody thing was bigger than the girl holding it! Hunter weapons these days were getting weird, thank Oum he stuck to the old classics.

"mmhmm is also a high-powered sniper rifle" she exclaimed clearly ecstatic about showing off her weapon. Jaune doesn't respond for a few seconds. Where have I seen that before?

An image of what looked like a medium black bird came to his mind… a Crow?

Something about that weapon reminded him of an older drunk man he had seen sitting in a few bars around Vacuo, always with a bottle in his hand. Or in his case a hip flask.

While he had never spoke to the man, just being near him made Jaune on his guard, something about him screamed danger or hidden agendas. Jaune didn't like that, he was the one who people couldn't figure out, finding someone who gave the same feeling wasn't a welcome one to him. Its hard enough to trust people when you know their agendas and aims, after all you never know where the next knife in your back will come from. Everyone has a price these days.

The drunk man in black with the massive scythe, always drunk but never harmless, he got the feeling that even half cut the man could wipe the floor with Jaune. On pure skill levels he knew he was years behind, on cunning however he could perhaps find a way out of a confrontation should it ever come. Wait why is he thinking about that now?

A hand waved in front of his face making him blink and jump back a bit with eyes wide.

Ruby simply tilted her head to one side and looked at him "sorry it looked like you were pretty out of it"

He laughed and rubbed the back of his head to emphasize embarrassment though in reality he came across as socially awkward in general. Acting skill 100 he thought grimly, although a little smile tugged at his lips in response to his own stupidity. Wait why is he smiling at her now? By Oum he must look a right state.

"erm sorry about that Ruby, just thought id seen a weapon like that before in Vacuo" he kept inspecting her weapon

She gasped "you are from Vacuo? That's so coooool! What weapons do they have there? Oooh oh do they have a lot of scythes there? Are they also sniper rifles? I bet none are as good as my baby Cresent Rose!"

Jaune raised an eyebrow with an amused look on his face

"A pretty bold statement there Ruby"

From what he had seen of her he expected her to get embarrassed but was surprised by her resolve as she stood her ground

"I'm not saying their weapons aren't good. Just Cresent Rose is my baby, it took a long time and a lot of effort to make a weapon perfect" Jaune raised the eyebrow higher

"I-I'm not saying I'm some weapon savant o-or that I can make things perfect b-but"

Jaune couldn't help it anymore and let out a small chuckle, moving a hand to the top of her head to ruffle her hair

"Cresent Rose is perfect for you, I get it I was just messing with you"

Ruby flushed a little at the contact and Jaune recognised his mistake. Shit she just reminded him so much of his little sister. Guess that information can't hurt he thought as he removed his hand.

"Sorry about that, I have a few little sisters back home it sort of becomes second nature" he says rubbing the back of his head again.

She nods as if understanding and is about to pry more but they reach the doors of the main hall.

It took a few minutes to enter the main hall with the rest of the student body as the entrance had aspiring huntsmen and huntresses crammed together like sardines. Crescent rose he thought, what a stupid name, not like Crocea Mors, now that was the name of a weapon. A true name for a true weapon without all that mecha shift nonsense. A good old classic sword and shield with a collapsible sheath.

Ruby growled something under her breath as they stood in the hall which Jaune didn't catch before he followed her eyes to the yellow woman he saw her with earlier. "isn't that someone you know?" he asked pointing ruby in her direction.

Ruby gasped and practically disappeared in a blast of rose petals "ohmygodthatsmysisterthanksforearliercatchyoulaterbye!"

Jaune blinked stupidly at where she had been stood as he tried to comprehend what she had said… nope didn't get it. With a sigh filled with fresh exhaustion he moved to the back of the pack and leaned against a pillar, waiting for the induction speech to begin.


	2. Chapter 2

As the students milled around the same women he had seen from the bullheads hologram stepped up to the podium to call for attention Professor Goodwitch if his memory served right. Following shortly after the hall quietened as Professor Ozpin made what Jaune had to assume was the same yearly speech he gave each time as he just didn't seem quite… there.

Although he did raise an interesting point.

A waste of energy eh?

Should be a wakeup call for some of these hopeful amateurs who believe being a huntsman is just about killing grim instead of sacrificing it all for the cause, his lips formed a grim thin line when he realised they are basically training them all to be martyrs for the cause.

As Ozpin stepped away from the podium Glynda took his place to make a final statement.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight, tomorrow your initiation begins. Be Ready, you are dismissed" And with that she followed the headmaster off the podium and further into the building.

Jaune watched her until she was out of sight before realising the rest of the students were heading towards his destination. Seeing as he didn't know where to go he slumped off the pillar he had been leaning against and followed.

A startled cry from his left had his eyes snapping in the direction seeking the source of the disturbance.

A young Faunus girl sat sprawled on the floor as a much larger teen snorted at her.

"Filthy animal" He spat before stomping away

Jaune simply rolled his eyes, a racist asshole and someone too weak to look after themselves, a story as old as time.

He didn't step over to help her up or see if she was okay, it was degrading to assume someone needed help.

So, he left, marching towards his destination, all be it with a quicker pace and a frown upon his face.

Weakness will only get you killed, you must look after yourself and yourself alone if you are to survive.

He arrived in the main hall to see it packed out with students all setting up sleeping bags… did he miss a memo?

Grumbling to himself he sat by a wall at the far-left end of the hall, so he had a view of the windows, leaning back to rest his head against it. It was amusing to think someone who had lived a lifestyle like his still had such a whiney nature, but u can't crush all things. Least that remained of who he used to be.

Call him a man of great class and riches… besides the fact he had none.

Call him a man who appreciated great class and riches, maybe one day he would indulge when this dirty business was over.

Maybe he should speak with an old contact although this one is less than legal.

If he wanted information there are plenty of people he could go too, though most notably Junior from the biggest club in vale. Dude was pretty trust worthy if you had the upper hand in combat, paid well for the information he was willing to give and didn't cause any trouble.

Jaune and Junior had a few dealings in the past when he was out hunting down various members of the white fang.

His information never failed to secure a kill and that was something you needed in a world like this.

His second contact and the one he would have preferred to go too is Roman Torchwick, nefarious criminal and all round stylish dresser… or so he claimed. Personally, Jaune didn't see the point in appearing flashy, just means you are recognised easier, and when holding a record… well that's the last thing you want.

Still Roman was the closest thing to a friend Jaune had at the moment and would be the first turn for information.

If the information required wasn't about said individual.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Roman it was that he couldn't.

Roman could be trusted to look after himself first and his friends and allies second. So, if someone held Roman to a threat for his life and was strong enough to carry it out then Roman would fold like a house of cards, self-preservation and all that.

There is no other way he could imagine him working alongside such animals as the white fang unless the deal was exceptionally profitable.

Of course, his involvement still had to be proved. But experience dictates that even with the shadow of a doubt of a person's integrity, they cannot be trusted. So that leaves Junior as his contact for information on Romans integrity and the location of white fang safe houses. A grim smile adjourned his lips eager for the bloodshed that would ensue from the information gathered

But that must be held under leash for now, his desires can be sated after he finds a team and initiation in completed, that is if his informant was correct about the teams.

With a slight shrug of his shoulders he closed his eyes, he would message Roman at the first chance and arrange a meeting, hoping what he feared wasn't true.

Roman I hope you aren't involved in this, id hate to be the one to end your life.

Students talked quietly in the hall, some louder than others Red and Yellow causing another scene, with a silent sigh he sent a mental glare at them, somehow hoping his mind could silence them. Alas even Atlas technology couldn't accomplish that yet, or maybe it could? He certainly didn't know, maybe it would be advantageous to seek such technology especially in situations like this.

"I was always on your side!" The shout came clear, pounding against his eardrums as he grumbled to himself, damn it red wait who are you even arguing with.

He cracked one eye open and let out an internal groan, white again ugh, that girl is going to be a pain in the ass he could already tell.

Haughty attitude? Check

Entitled? Check

Loud? Check

Schnee? Hmm, he didn't want to assume and didn't care enough to take notice of the cases earlier, but the fact that she had someone wheeling it for her? Yeah, it's a safe bet she is a rich girl from Atlas.

Great!

The epitome of everything he hated… besides white fang of course, they are still no 1.

He settled back against the wall, trying to block out the sound as he let his mind wander to the first time he met the flamboyant thief.

He remembered ash and flames, solitude and pain and a boy who he used to be, aged only 12.

/

Jaune let out a groan as a fist stuck his nose, breaking it in one blow as he collapsed onto the floor clutching his nose with tears in his eyes. Looking up at the full-grown Faunus who had struck him.

But this was nothing new

He was a street rat; his life was worth less than the brass knuckles which had impacted his face.

"I-I'm sorry" he choked out through a sob

The female Faunus raised a hand an indication to stop the violence and stepped forward slowly towards the downed child.

"An apology isn't good enough is it? We took you in, gave you a home and a job but when we ask you to do something to repay our kindness what do you do?"

Jaune whimpered and curled into a ball

She growled and stomped onto his head, a sickening crack as blood seeped from his cheek where her heel had broken the bone and flesh.

She leaned close "you fail, and what do we say about failure hmm?"

Jaune whimpered, holding his arms to stop himself from shaking too much.

The female Faunus smirked as she removed her heel with another crunch, breaking more of his cheek as he cried out.

Snapping her fingers, she signalled her departure, the male Faunus or Brute as the other children knew him as grabbed Jaune by the collar and went to lift him up but another snap from her fingers caused his head to twist to look at her curiously.

"Ma'am?" He questioned

"leave him, he has failed for the last time"

Brute looked at her for a few seconds before nodding and dropping Jaune face first into the sand.

"still though he is at least good for labour surely?"

She regarded him for a second before smirking

"think there is a shortage of these rats? We can get another as soon or late as we want. Hopefully one who isn't so weak and spineless" She spat in Jaunes direction before departing with Brute.

Jaune lay on the ground shaking, blood seeping from his broken cheek and nose.

"w-weak?" he whimpered to himself

"I'm just the same as back then! Nothing has changed" and like that what little control of his emotions broke as Jaune shook tears of sorrow, regret, failure and self-loathing.

He hated himself

Too weak to save his sister, too weak to escape the fire without scarring and too weak to even look after himself. What good is someone who can't even survive on their own?

After the incident he was a street rat starving to death on the street.

He was picked up by a group of Faunus calling themselves the White fang or something. What he failed to realise was this wasn't an act of kindness. The white fang had been picking up human children from all over Vacuo and forcing them into hard labour, the government couldn't stop it due to the large gang activity in these areas and the overall presence of the White fang in high power positions.

The few senators who voted for an armed invasion of what was fang territory, were found dead in their rooms that very night with their throats slit.

They had scared the government and the people into silence, just ignore it and till go away, heh it never works.

They took him in, gave him bland food and rug to sleep on provided he and the other children loaded the dust into large cylinder tubes, red for one tube, white for another and so on and so forth.

When the leader of the little organisation came in she picked a few of them at random, using them to run the dust along the streets at night into the other nearby white fang underground hideouts.

Unfortunately, it was a very dangerous job, other gangs were based in the area and would often pick off the runners, killing or beating them once caught and stealing the dust and failure isn't something the white fang accepts. To fail was to prove you aren't worthy of life in this "new world" they were trying to make.

Boots crunched in the sand by his huddled form before coming to a stop by his head, the owner moving Jaune onto his back with his boot to get a better look at him.

"tch" the man spat "just another rat picked up by those animals" he kneeled by Jaunes head and waved a hand in front of his face looking more resigned and disinterested than someone looking to help.

"Oi kid you can't just lay here all day you know, the weak die you know" he spared a roguish grin at the downed boy who lay still, eye vacant.

Looking up into a mop of ginger hair and a stylish bowler hat Jaune raised himself slowly into a sitting position, staring up at him with a blank look.

"c-can I help you sir?" Jaune was hopeful, that was no lie.

Hopeful that this stranger could pull him off the street, get him away from this life so he wouldn't have to go crawling back to the white fang and beg for food.

The stranger cocked his head to one side inspecting the kid.

The kid looked rough there is no way around it, black and blue bruises traversed the length of his arms, a bloody broken nose still oozing blood onto the dry sand and a cheek slick with an open would which still leaked fluid. In a way the stranger felt a kindship with the boy, remembering his own days as a street rat.

"the world is a cruel place kid, you either learn to survive or you die and only you can do that."

He turned and strode to the edge of the alley and as Jaunes hope was dashed to the sand the stranger turned at the last moment.

"You must get stronger kid. Tell you what, I'll come back in a week, if you are still alive and haven't gone snivelling back to those filthy animals, maybe I'll train you, but you would need to be willing to partake in a certain type of activity, sound good to you?" He grinned again as Jaune tilted his head in confusion.

"I think the choice is clear"

He waved one hand over his shoulder as he disappeared around the corner of the building.

Jaune just stared down at his bloody hands

"B-break the law to survive" he whispered to himself and as he stood on shaky legs and stumbled out of the alley into a street filled with street rats, the homeless, war refugees and thugs.

he growled under his breath "I don't want to survive" he spat "I want vengeance"

He looked up at the darkened sky of Vacuo

"Ill make the fang pay if it's the last thing I do!"

He ground his teeth together and made his decision.

His eyes flashed open briefly for a moment as he looked around the dimly lit hall, 99% of the student body now lay slumbering in their sleeping bags.

/

"tch" he muttered

He hadn't thought about how he met the rogue for a long time

Feeling too awake to try to sleep again he stood up and stretched silently.

Scanning the room, he saw a teacher sat in a chair overlooking the students, probably to make sure none of them try to do something stupid during the night. Jaune wasn't trying to do anything stupid, he simply wanted to go for a walk, though he doubted that would be allowed… so he snuck off.

As the teachers obviously, tired eyes scanned to the right side of the room he dashed to the left, from his position at the wall and behind a pillar as the teachers eyes flashed right from the noise.

Jaune steadied his breath, years of training kicked in as his breathing became near silent, he crept through the darkness with practiced subtlety until he reached the door, slipping through it unnoticed as the older large teacher's eyes returned to the other side of the room.

Striding through the dimly lit corridors and out into the chill of the night, clutching his jacket a little tighter to himself as he walked toward the main fountain, the centre piece of the entrance to beacon.

Walking over to it with hands swinging gently at his side he cupped some water in his palm and splashed it against his face, shaking his head a bit to wake himself up.

Could he make a trip to Vale now?

No. The last bullhead has already flown.

Could he make a phone call to Junior?

Probably not, as calling in the early hours of the morning puts you in no one's good book.

With a sigh he sat on the edge of the fountain, smothering another yawn behind his hand and looking up at the shattered moon.

Thinking of the task at hand was always a stressful thing, he was more of a think on your feet kind of guy, this sort of waiting and pondering was never an easy thing for Jaune to do, he was anxious to get the information needed, meet with his contacts and start to raid white fang factories and warehouses.

Maybe free some child slaves while he is at it should he find any, although the vale branch is a lot smaller than the Vacuo branch, so he doubted that the authorities and media would have missed child slavery in Vale.

They would have jumped on the idea to push their own agenda.

His thoughts were interrupted by the tapping of heels against the stone path.

He sighed gently, found out already?

The tapping stopped and in the dim of the moonlight he could see a huntress as she rounded the fountain only to stop when she noticed him.

Tilting her head to the side and lowering her glasses to look at him from over them.

"you aren't wearing uniform and your out past curfew. Are you one of the newbies waiting for initiation?"

He regarded her for a few seconds, eyes trailing up and down her body which she seemed to notice although didn't mind. On her head she wore a beret, sunglasses over her eyes and brown hair down to her shoulder, a brown jacket leading down to skin tight leggings showing off some skin at her hips leading all the way down into high heeled boots.

Although she didn't look dangerous Jaune could tell by her stance she was no amateur to combat.

He nodded at her and rubbed the back of his head to look nervous "I-I am, sorry miss I wanted to get some fresh air"

She smirked "that's some critical eye for someone nervous"

He cursed himself silently, oh well no one said he was a good actor.

"Can't a man admire beauty when he sees it?" he teased

she cocked her head to one side "I get a lot of looks admiring me, that one was different though like you were inspecting me kid"

Kid? He groaned internally, she wasn't much older than him.

He just shrugged and looked back up to the moon, ignore a problem and it'll go away… maybe? Wishful thinking probably.

"Hey bucko I think you should go back inside, newbies aren't allowed out here at night, plus you aren't in uniform"

He swivelled his head back to her "and you are?"

She coughed a bit "it's still technically Sunday night I don't have to be in uniform until tomorrow"

He bobbed his head a bit, that's fair.

"what were you actually doing out here?"

He closed his eyes, she doesn't let up does she?

"I was hoping to catch a bullhead to vale" keeping his voice even to hide emotions.

"leaving already?" She Queried

He chuckled a little, imagine that.

"nah, was thinking of going to a club, meet up with some friends" He waved a hand dismissively

There was a bit of surprise in her otherwise hard gaze "even with initiation tomorrow you want to go party?"

He chuckled a bit, after all how else would that sound "sure, why not" He grinned.

She watched the boy for a few moments, there was something about him that was just off. He had that cute, kind dork look about him but something about those eyes and the way he guarded every word had her thinking there was more than meets the eye.

Even now as she watched him he sat with still shoulders like he was ready to launch an all-out attack should she provoke him, she noticed he never let her out of peripheral vision either.

To get out here he must have snuck past old port which wasn't an easy task.

The teacher may look jolly and act like a clown at times, but he wasn't a teacher for nothing, he knew all about combat and watched the students like a hawk, the kid must be able to move quietly.

She cocked her head to the side and gave him a beautiful smile, searching for a reaction in some way.

All the kid did was give her a blank look and raise an eyebrow slightly.

Right so teasing and flirting is off, maybe she should just leave him here?

But he really shouldn't be out at night like this, not the night before initiation, with a little sigh she stepped closer which he didn't react too.

"come on"

He frowned "why?"

"you have to get back inside, you can get in serious trouble for doing this, the teacher was stationed for a reason you know?"

The kid paused, looking her dead in the eyes for a few seconds as if weighing up the weight of her words before bobbing his head a bit "alright I'm coming"

She strode a few paces ahead of him as she leads him back towards the main hall where the student body slept, glancing back she saw him typing a message on his scroll with a small smile on his face.

Hmm, he doesn't look half bad when he isn't stone faced, she thinks.

Shaking her head, she calls back to him "Hey kid, what's your name?"

He glances up at her and gives her a little smile, must be still in a good mood from whatever message he was typing "Jaune" He said "Jaune Arc"

She turns to face him and holds a hand out which he shakes

She could feel the calluses from his large hands

"Coco Adel, I'm a third year if you couldn't tell"

She lets go of his hand to place a hand on her hip and lean to one side, striking a pose to show off her features.

His eyes roam over her form for a few seconds, instead of blushing or stuttering as she expects of younger men he simply smiled at her

"I can tell indeed; perhaps next time ill see more" He teased

She snorted "Sorry bucko but you aren't handsome enough for that"

He let out a little chuckle and soon she allowed a little one to escape her lips

"huh so you are human after all, for a moment I got worried you were a cyborg"

He grinned "Who knows, anyway miss Adel thanks for the chat, cleared my mind a bit, ill catch you around"

She shook her head a bit "If you pass initiation"

He grinned "As if it's even in question"

She rolled her eyes ah egos.

"well if you do pass, hit me up about that party you were on about in vale"

He laughed and opened the door, sneaking back into the main hall.

Coco watched him go with barely veiled curiosity

"What a strange guy"

/

Roman strode into one of his many warehouses of his booming underground empire, truly he had made it.

Vales most wanted? Check

Rich beyond belief? Check

He looked down at himself. Stylish as ever? Damn right

An army of goons who all wore suits? Check

After all, if you are working for Vales most stylish criminal, then you must look the part, Roman couldn't be seen committing robbery surrounded by a bunch of riff raff.

He needed a bunch of stylish guards and associates with him in the centre. Them in black, him in white. It was the perfect blend of danger and class and he enjoyed every second of it.

Climbing the stairs to the upper levels and into his own little private office, although more of a lounge would be accurate. A lounge you could smoke in of course.

Lighting up a cigar and taking a few puffs on it to keep it lit he sat down on one of the large comfortable sofas in his office facing the door and put his feet up on the coffee table.

Sighing in bliss and taking another puff, he poured himself a glass of bourbon from the bottle left on the table and took a refreshing sip.

This is the life

This is the life he fought for, stole for, killed for, bled for and suffered for.

He earned this luxury, so damn right he was going to enjoy it.

However, a buzz of his scroll set him grumbling and throwing it onto the table

What asshat was messaging this late?

There were only a few people on remnant who had his private number so that narrows down who it is, picking up his scroll and taking another drag on his cigar he read the message.

" _Be in Vale in a few days, we need to talk"_

Roman grumbled and tossed it across the table again, well that wasn't cryptic was it?

Let's list down the assholes that could be hmmm

Junior? Probably not, he wouldn't have the balls to face him in person, he'd send the twins and that never ends well, bloody brats.

Cinder? Hopefully not, she already had him by the balls and he didn't need another confrontation with her and those useless kids she keeps around, Oum what he would do to them if she were out of the picture. The only question is how to get her out of the picture? Roman didn't have many allies to speak of, he had Neo of course, the multicoloured assassin was one of the few people on remnant he cared about, and Roman wasn't going to risk her life in an attempt on Cinders. That was just foolish, after all if she failed then Cinder would kill him, gotta think practically.

"Hmmm, there is also the kid, but I haven't seen him in about a year…"

Realisation struck him like an ash tray to the face, just as one did.

Roman groaned and rubbed his jaw as he threw the ash tray back at the perpetrator, damn it he didn't hear them come in.

Neo caught it and rolled her eyes, pointedly staring at his cigar then nodding to the ash tray.

He sighed and slumped back into the couch "yeah yeah" He said flicking some ash off into it, he had forgotten Neo had claimed this room, sort of like a cat would.

She skipped over to the freezer and pulled out some ice-cream, grabbing a spoon from the counter and taking a mouthful, sighing in bliss.

He gestured to the seat opposite him which Neo plopped into before he flicked the scroll towards her, so she could read it.

She frowned at him and made a questioning hand gesture.

Roman rolled his eyes "Only a handful of people it could be, have a guess"

Neo tapper her chin for a moment before holding a finger up and stroking an imaginary beard.

Roman rolled his eyes "already been through that train of thought, Junior wouldn't come alone"

Neo nodded in agreement before tilting her head to the side as if confused.

She pulled her hand to her face which smiled at Roman before swiping her hand down her face leaving her with a blank expression.

She waved a hand in front of her own eyes and didn't blink to which Roman chuckled at.

"That's what my hunch is telling me, seems the kid has come to Vale and wants to meet up with old uncle Torchwick"

Neo nodded and pointed to herself to which roman rolled his eyes.

"Yes Neo I'm sure he is coming to see you too"

She bounced happily, digging the spoon back in and eating another mouthful of her sugary treat.

It stopped dead in her mouth and she didn't swallow, her eyes went wide for a minute and Roman was suddenly on alert.

"What is it?!"

Neo made a gesture of a long tooth and pointed to the pale walls of his office.

What could she mean he pondered

Pale tooth? Sounds like a crap superhero

White mouth? Sounds dirty.

Neo made a few more gestures like touching something pointy

"Fang?" he questioned to which she nodded, pointing at the wall again

"White fang?" She nodded urgently

"Ooooh the white fang, well that's fine the kid will…" He slapped a palm against his face, shit.

The kid would kill him for working with the fang, he had killed for far less in Vacuo.

If the kid would kill those who work with the fang tho and he is being forced to work with them due to his boss.

Heh maybe this could work out, perhaps the kid could kill her.

He quickly shook his head, Jaune was many things but he wasn't strong enough to kill a monster like Cinder, but maybe together the three of them could beat her, maybe just maybe…

Neo was still waving frantically trying to get his attention to which he gave his characteristic roguish grin. She rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry about Jaune, perhaps he will be the answer to our little problem eh?"

Neos confused face started to morph into an evil grin as she nodded to him showing she knew his train of thought.

Maybe just maybe, they could all get out of this rotten deal alive.


	3. Chapter 3

Jaune snuck back into the main hall only to run into the stern and tired face of the portly teacher who was entrusted with watching over the students.

"My boy you shouldn't be wandering around this late, not with perhaps the most important day of your life tomorrow!"

Jaune raised an eyebrow at the man as he inspected him. Red military jacket, boots, massive moustache and Bushey eyebrows, why does everyone here look like freaks?

"Ugh" he let slip as he pinched the bridge of his nose before remembering this was a teacher and straightening back up. "Sorry sir I got lost trying to find the bathroom, a higher year student escorted me back here"

"Hmm is that so? Well be sure to thank whoever it was should you pass initiation"

Jaune tilted his head to the side again and the teacher backpaddled quickly with a hearty laugh

"Sorry lad, I haven't had much sleep, of course you all shall pass, its glorious to see such aspiring young hunters! I look forward to seeing you in my lessons in the coming year, just remember keep your head out there, the initiation won't be easy lad. A lack of sleep could cost you badly"  
His brows creased into a stern glare to which Jaune nodded his head in understanding.

"I apologise sir it won't happen again"

"Of course, it won't lad! Now off with you, everyone will be getting up in a few hours you might want to catch some more rest" The round teacher then trotted back to his seat and proceeded to read the paper which lay there.

Jaune nodded his thanks and returned to his spot leaning against the wall, hoping to catch a few hours sleep before what was bound to be an emotionally taxing day, not physically of course.

He was confident in his ability to pass initiation easily, it was only fighting grim after all or, so he had to guess.

What would be taxing is dealing with the students and teachers, as well as his anxiousness about the meeting with Roman which he wanted to get sorted as soon as possible but alas the first few days were taken by Beacon by the looks of it.

When that business is finished he can head into Vale to meet with his old comrade, of course the nature of the meeting will depend on Roman. If what he feared wasn't true, then the two of them could share a drink and maybe he would be a useful source of information for Jaunes crusade against the white fang.

Should what he feared be true though… then he would be leaving with Romans head.

With those thoughts he closed his eyes to sleep, his dreams plagued by fire and screaming, the most common of his recurring nightmares.

/

Lucy Arc slammed her fist down on the desk of her office, she was currently on an Atlas battleship after picking up a job in the military, before long she rose to the rank of operative as was expected of the eldest of the remaining Arcs.

Without mother and father, it fell on her shoulders to look after her siblings, well what remained of them.

There was herself Lucy Arc the eldest, the second eldest Emerald Arc who also worked in Atlas as a wartime technician and medic. Of course, she too could fight and fight well, after what happened to their parents Lucy vowed to train all her siblings to make sure all could look after themselves should the need ever arise.

The youngest of the sisters little Amy Arc who was only 10 years old, Lucy was more of a mother figure to her than a sister, but she felt the girl needed all the support she could get for losing her mother so young.

She sighed heavily and searched through the spread-out newspapers and documents strewn across her desk.

Finally, her little brother Jaune Arc who went off the deep end after the death of their parents, feeling himself responsible for not being able to save his twin sister from the fire that consumed. He allowed a different fire to consume him, the fires of war and hatred.

She picked up one of the documents on her desk.

 _The Oasis Massacre_

 _42 members of the infamous terrorist group the white fang found dead in a warehouse opposite the Oasis hotel. There were signs of a struggle for only half of the victims, the rest were taken out before they were even aware or, so the wounds imply.  
The wounds on the bodies were inflicted with a slashing or a cutting weapon, likely a blade.  
Other bodies were blackened and charred, likely by the explosion which alerted the police and had them flooding into the area to investigate._

 _Investigation proved negative, like the other cases there was no DNA evidence of the assailant that could be found, no trace either._

 _The assailant disappeared after completing the butchery._

The Document was dated 2 years prior and signed officially by the Vacuo government.

Along with it was a picture captured on a security camera before it went offline.

It showed a man in black wielding a gleaming white blade, his face and eyes covered by the shadow of his hood, other weapons such as grenades, guns and knives were strapped to his clothing. The gleaming blade carried the Arc symbol drenched in Faunus blood.

Lucy closed her eyes and leant back in the chair.

What monster have you become Jaune?

She looked at the document again and saw at the bottom of the page a reward for anyone who can identify the vigilante responsible for these heinous crimes.

She shook her head, no. Despite the trouble she could get into she would not give any information on him, as much as she disagreed with the way he worked. She understood the burning rage behind it.

Although it didn't help that he had become so infamous that the Vacuo newspapers had given the mysterious killer a name "The Vacuo Butcher" it read.

The title was given after 54 Faunus were found dismembered in a mass grave, the warehouse or base of operations, the police weren't sure which it was but whatever it had once been had been burned to the ground. The bodies were found buried under the rubble, all of which had deep blade wounds, a few had also been shot or taken out with explosives, it was well known after that of the tactics of the Vacuo Butcher.

Lucy couldn't bring herself to care about it when she heard the news, neither could the rest of the remaining Arcs.

The bastards took half the family away from them, as far as she was concerned the lot of them could rot in a mass grave.

What worried her wasn't just the brutal tactics and that she didn't know just how stable her little brother was. Spending years out alone or surrounded by criminals hunting down and killing the white fang like animals, she could only imagine just what the guilt and violence had done to her younger brother's mind.

But what worried her most was one of the other documents she had acquired from the Atlas files.

Which linked her little brother to the nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick.

It detailed incidents where the Vacuo Butcher and Roman Torchwick fought side by side against Vacuo police or military forces, sometimes due to being caught stealing weapons or dust rounds from armouries and stores.

Other times where the bodies found in white fang bases of operation had been killed using blunt objects, she knows Jaune doesn't use blunt weapons, so it must be either Torchwick or another accomplish he had found.

She rubbed her tired eyes and found the latest information she could on Jaune. The Vacuo sands newspaper.

 _The governments Butcher?_

 _After a bloody 18 month conflict the Vacuo military has stomped out the last of the white fang strongholds plaguing the beautiful land which we call our home, and as the last of the terrorists were flushed out and executed the infamous Butcher of Vacuo disappeared and hasn't been sighted for over 3 months._

 _Perhaps the Butcher was less of a vigilante and was in fact working under the government and military to rid them of the white fang? While we haven't received proof, it seems awfully coincidental that as Vacuo declare victor the Butcher vanishes._

 _Could it be that he only had an interest in killing the white fang?_

 _Could it be that he was hired or in fact trained by the government for this exact purpose?_

 _With riots in the streets and marshal law in place the citizens want answers, just how deep does the corruption go?_

 _Theories still indicate that the White fang was in fact funded by the government, should this be true and then they train a butcher to eradicate them, what does this say of our nation?_

 _Where the government trades lives for entertainment and profit on war._

 _This has been Adam smith signing off._

Lucy huffed and put the paper down, obviously a biased paper as everyone knows Vacuo is a shit place to live. Still, this was the last paper that Adam Smith ever wrote, he was found dead in his apartment three days later, the police forces say he took his own life but that seems a bit coincidental.

She sighed "I'm not getting involved in that shit show" she mumbled

Her aim was finding and bringing Jaune back to Atlas with her, maybe she could get him the help he needed.

Picking up more papers she continued to read through Jaunes activity in Vacuo, but mainly focusing on his activity with Roman Torchwick.

A few hours passed into the night as there was a knock at the door which roused her from her work.

"enter" she called attempting to not let the exhaustion show.

A man entered the room, he wasn't the tallest, only around her height of 5'8 but was built strong and athletic, he wore grey combat trousers leading down into white boots. A grey shirt with a white jacket displaying the atlas military symbol where his heart is. He was looking a little rugged and his eyes showed exhaustion as he gave her a small smile "Good evening Lucy, any luck yet?"

She smiled up at him "None yet Victor"

He shook his head with a small smile "you work yourself too hard Lucy, you are going to burn yourself out if you don't get some rest"

She sighed in irritation, this again?

"I told you before Vic, I will sleep when I need too, for now I still have work to do"

"You mean finding your wayward brother and not doing the actual assigned work into the White fang activity in Atlas and our allies Vale?" He wore a shit eating grin to which she flushed a bit at.

"I was just doing a bit of… uuuuuh further research?" she tried

Vic just rolled his eyes

"Of course you were" He said sarcastically "Found anything on his ware abouts?"

She signed again "nothing, after Vacuo finished off the White Fang he disappeared, I haven't got a clue where he could be… or if he is even still alive"

Vic frowned, causing lines to crease under his tired eyes "You think he might have offed himself/"

Lucy nodded sullenly "He could have, after the incident he lived only for vengeance, if he feels he has achieved it then why wouldn't he?"

Vic walked over to her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder

"Maybe he just followed them to another kingdom? He could be in Atlas? Or Vale?"

She paused for a minute before bursting out in laugher.

Vic removed his hand and watched her for a few moments "are you okay Lucy?"

She smirked up at him "He is alive"

Vic tilted his head a bit "How can you be sure?"

Lucy flipped through the paper strewn about her desk and passed along a news report, one of the many that linked Roman Torchwick to the Butcher of Vacuo.

Vic nodded at her, seeing her line of thinking "Vale it is then"

Footsteps interrupted them, fast paced and small causing Vic to sigh and Lucy to smile a content smile to see her youngest sister Amy run into the room. Lucy barely got out from behind her desk as the little girl crashed into her in a tight hug to which Lucy responded by wrapping her arms around the girl and picking her up.

Lucy looked down at the girl in her arms lovingly but realised after a few moments that she had already fallen asleep in her arms.

Vic chuckled a bit "yeah sorry, she followed me here" he leaned across to poke Lucy in the head "she missed her big sister who has spent far long in her office don't you think?"

Lucy sighed tiredly at him "alright alright I get it, ill go off to bed then. You should do the same, we still have a lot of work to do"

Vic saluted and marched out of her office as Lucy carried Amy in her arms, locking her office behind her and heading back to their shared room yawning.

You wouldn't believe how big she is now Jaune, if only you could move on and re-join the rest of your family.

With another yawn she lay Amy down in her bed and clambered into bed herself, setting her alarm for 4 hours from then after all she had a meeting with operative Shnee tomorrow in regard to the stolen dust shipments.

She groaned at the thought as she drifted off to sleep.

/

Jaune awoke to the sound his scroll going off, with a growl he fumbled with the buttons trying to turn it off for a few moments before opening his eyes and pointedly pressing the button to stop the alarm. He stood slowly, sliding up the wall until he was on his feet and stretching his arms with a yawn.

Pocketing his scroll, he sauntered towards the bathroom and walked into the male one, there were a few other students with the same idea as him stood over the sink washing the sleepy out of their faces.

The large teen from the day before was also present, washing the sleepy out of his eyes as he turned and almost bumped into Jaune were it not for him leaning on the balls of his feet and spinning out of the way. Jaune didn't know if that was a purposeful move to attempt to knock into him but frankly he didn't care, just from looking at this clown up and down he could already see what an amateur he was, using pure strength had its merits but one requires speed to make use of those heavy strikes and unless he fought with grabs and throws he doubted this boy would be any threat.

The teen sneered and turned fully to face Jaune.

"I saw you yesterday you know"

Jaune just gave him a blank look "okay?"

"Rolling your eyes like you look down on me" He bumped a hand against his chest "No one looks down on me"

Jaune just walked past him to the sink "kay" and started washing his face.

The other teen stood still, watching him like he was debating whether or not he could get away with assaulting him. Jaune hid a smirk, assholes like this exist all over the world it didn't matter where you lived or visited. People trying to prove their worth through what they saw as asserting dominance when in reality they were remembered as useless. In the end people like this always end up in a shallow grave on the edge of a battlefield with not a person to feel remorse at their loss.

So, in a way him and Jaune were similar, but that's where the similarities stopped.

Jaune finished and dried his face in his towel before looking dead in the eye of the other boy.

"Can I help you at all?"

The teen snorted "Just mind your own damn business, roll your eyes at me again and you will regret it" He walked out of the bathroom with his head held high.

Jaune stood still for a few moments, okay? That was rather strange, who walks out of a bathroom with their head held high? Shaking his head with a small smile he also exited, well this could be fun after all, his eyes scanned the room looking at the huntsmen and huntresses. Certainly a few interesting characters to keep him entertained.

"Jaune!"

Speak of the devil and he shall come

He turned to face little red as she ran up to him "Hey Ruby, sleep well?"

She nodded, almost bouncing on the spot in excitement "I can't believe its initiation today! Finally get to show off what me and my baby can do!"

He chuckled a little at that, of course she would be excited about that "Not nervous at all?"

He paused for a minute before shrugging a bit "Of course I am a bit nervous, but this is like a dream come true for me, I've always wanted to be a huntress like mom, and I'm not going to let nerves or anxiety get in the way of me passing this!"  
Jaune smiled, once again impressed by the girl and was about to say something before someone interrupted him.

"RUUUUUUBYYYYY" the call came out echoing across the hall and violently waking anyone who was still sleeping as the blonde beauty marched towards ruby.

Rubys eyes went wide and she tried to hide behind Jaune, were it not for him stepping aside and giving a little bow to the blonde who passed him to hunt down what he assumed was her close friend or family.

"Traitoooooooor!" Ruby called as she was set upon by the blonde woman.

"Ruby for Oums take you said follow you then disappeared then I see you over here talking too… wait" She turned to Jaune "Who is this?"

Ruby bounced between them "Oh oooh this is Jaune, he helped me to find you yesterday after you ditched me!" She snarled at the blonde woman who rolled her eyes in response.

She eyes Jaune, looking him up and down before giving him a little wink

"Not bad little sis, didn't think you could catch one this good!"

Rubys face went bright red and she jumped at her sister to violently pummel her, which of course did no good and the by play made Jaune laugh.

Oh yeah, he liked this one.

He held out a hand to the blonde woman "Jaune Arc, pleasure to meet you"

The blonde woman put Ruby down and reached forward to shake Jaunes rough callused hands "Yang, Yang Xiao Long, big sister to this one, hope she hasn't caused too much trouble"

Ruby growled at her "I'm not the one who started a fight in a night club!"

Jaune raised an eyebrow at Yang who shrugged elegantly

"A fun night" She winked at him "Something you can always be sure of with me" to which Ruby paled and face palmed.

"Oh no please stop trying to flirt with my new friend"

Jaune withdrew his hand and chuckled, well these two were interesting weren't they.

"What do you want him all to yourself?" Yang teased "Thought dad taught you to share! How disappointed would he be?"

Ruby snarled at her "Not to share guys!" She went bright red and Jaune could swear he could see steam coming form her ears "I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT UGH!"

Yang took off running and still teasing her sister as Ruby chased her across the hall.

All Jaune could do was laugh.

Feeling in a lighter mood than he had in a while he followed the rest of the student body towards their lockers.

/

Following the students, he arrived in the room he saw the day before, where he stored his weapons.

He didn't feel nervous about being unarmed even after the life he had lived, Roman taught him to fight in hand to hand combat and he even had a few kills to his name achieved without any weapons and against armed opponents. Frankly he figured he would be fine in a place such as this without the need to conceal a weapon or two.

Reaching locker 636 he started strapping his silver armour to himself, equipping Crocea Mors at his hip with the shield in its full form on his back, he was used to the weight, so it was rather easy now to lug around. Slipping a combat knife down the side of each of his boots and concealing a gun with 16 rounds under his jacket, you can never be too prepared.

Shutting his locker and turning he almost walked straight into white, with a small grunt of effort he skipped past her without knocking the poor girl over.

"HEY! Watch where you are going you dunce!" She called after him.

With a sigh filled with exhaustion he turned to face what he knew would be a trying task, trying to control his anger that was.

"I was watching where I was going, hence why I didn't walk through you" He answered emotionlessly.

Looking behind her, he saw a woman in red and bronze walk up behind the one in white.

The girl growled up at him "I don't care that you didn't walk into me, you shouldn't have even come that close! Do you have no special awareness? "

"I think you will find I have more than you little girl and speed to match it" he answered blandly

The girl growled "Little girl? Little girl?! Do you have any idea who you are talking too?!"

Jaune just looked at her blankly "I was planning to talk to no one before you stormed up to me, maybe the woman behind you, looks like she has her head on her shoulders"

The redhead leaned forward and extended a hand which Jaune shook

The little girl in white glared up at him "Do you not know who she is?"

He raised an eyebrow "Should I?"

She waved her arms around agitated as Jaune pulled his hand from that of the redhead who was… smiling at him for some reason.

"This is Pyrrha Nikos, she graduated top of her class at sanctum"

"never heard of it"

"She has won the Mistral regional tournament 4 years in a row… a new record"

"Is that impressive?"

"She is on the front of every Pumpkin Petes Marshmall flakes box!"

"Is that a cereal?"

She ground her teeth together "YES"

He looked at Pyrrha "Erm congratulations on the cereal?" his head swivelled to look at the girl in white "Is that what you were after?"

The girl in white face palmed and muttered something about being surrounded by idiots to which Jaune ignored, honestly these Schnee types were all the same, with a stick so far up their asses you could call them puppets.

He remembered the first time he met the other Schnee, Winter he remembered, an air of superiority around her as she met with the old drunken Scythe wielder in a bar in Vacuo.

One thing not to doubt was her power, much like the Scythe wielder he could tell she was well trained and dangerous just by the way she walked. He remembered them sharing a drink over something, obviously something had gone wrong or their jobs were stressful as he got the feeling they didn't actually get along.

Yet they still drank together that night for mutual benefit of course.

Pyrrha waved a hand in front of his face and he blinked and stepped back but she caught him and giggled a bit "sorry, it looked like you were out of it"

He rubbed the back of his head as he had done so many times before "sorry I didn't catch what you said before"

Pyrrha giggled at him "I said, thank you, I didn't catch your name?"

He smiled at her "Jaune, Jaune Arc, just rolls of the tongue, the ladies love it"

The girl in white gave him a flat look "Do they?"

He grinned and winked "that's for you to figure out miss?"

He held out a hand and she snorted but shook it none the less "Schnee, Weiss Schnee in fact, heiress to the Schnee dust company"

He nodded at her, just as he had predicted.

"Will all first-year students please report to Beacon cliffs for initiation"

Huh that must have been that Goodwitch chick, shrugging at the girls and giving a little nod of farewell, he headed out of the door and towards the cliffs.

The walk was peaceful, and he recovered some of his mood which was lost by the Schnee, well that's something at least. He saw a few other students behind him and he realised they were pretty much following him.

He turned left, following the directions from one of the signs and after only 5 minutes arrived at beacon cliffs to be greeted by a few figures.

Professor Ozpin stood tall, looking over Jaune and the students with a critical but tired eye, wearing his classic green suit with his Cain against the floor to offer support that Jaune doubted the man needed. He hid his power well, Jaune couldn't tell just how dangerous Ozpin was, all he knew is the man gave off a strange Aura and his eyes told a story thousands of years old.

A very interesting man.

Next to him was the older attractive huntress who had given the announcement, Goodwitch and her name matched her attire, looking like a witch bread for combat. Her gaze stern and uncompromising but as it passed Jaune he made sure to meet her eyes and for a few seconds a small staring contest occurred before her eyes moved on. That's right, never show fear or uncertainty, even in the face of such an obviously terrifying woman. She gave off a dangerous Aura alright, power far in excess of Jaunes, the type of opponent he didn't want to face. It also looked like she fought mainly at range looking at her weapon.

Poor matchup, don't get on her bad side.

Down from him was the tired and exhausted looking Portly teacher he had met the previous night, he was a strange one, gave of a presence like he was useless yet Jaune had no doubt this man could wrestle an Ursa to the ground with ease. Pure strength looking like his forte, as well as his blunderbuss like weapon with an axe on it, a very interesting combination.

An actor, he is dangerous.

Finally, there was a tall and thin looking man with green hair, he adjusted his glasses and like Goodwitch inspected the students. The man looked the most like a teacher but Jaune wouldn't be fooled, these were teachers of the most famous hunter training academy on remnant, this man would also be able to kill Jaune no doubt, probably while writing a novel with the other hand.

Critical gaze much like his own, will notice small things.

Once all the students lined up the teachers escorted them all to a launching podium and they stood ready.

Jaune stomped on it once to test it, yep he was going to be flying through the sky.

He smirked a bit, at least this time it won't be on a burning bullhead into a white fang base.

As students down the line were launched he realised it would soon be his turn.

Remembering Ozpins words as his pad was launched sending him soaring into the air, he deployed his shield and drew Crocea Mors.

First person you meet eyes with will be your partner for the next 4 years huh.

Thinking on the fly was an important lesson for hunters so he knew why they had launched them, it was just as Roman had taught him, fight dirty and fight smart, you must have a quick mind to survive in a word so cruel.

He closed his eyes for a moment and remembered when the Criminal had come back for him.

/

It was a week later and Jaune was still kicking, surviving by stealing from shops, occasionally pick pocketing folks who looked distracted and sleeping in the same alley the mysterious man had found him in, hoping beyond all that he had experienced in this rotten life that the man would come back for him.

Staving off starvation by only moving when necessary and when he moved it was always to steal, bread was usually easy, while the shop keeper was busy. Jump the back fence, sneak through the back door and steal a freshly baked loaf before he notices, jump back over the fence and return to the alley which he slept in.

It was exactly 7 days and he heard footsteps approaching, he was getting used to knowing how close people were by the crunch of their boots against soil, something you needed to learn to steal enough to survive.

Jaune opened his eyes and stood up, eyeing where he heard the noise coming from with a cautious eye as a hand landed on his other shoulder.

Jaune jumped back with wide eyes to the shit eating grin of the orange haired man.

"Well well well, looks like you have been busy kid" he nodded to the freshly stolen loaf of bread "Been taking my advice I see"

Jaune just stared up at him, unsure what to do or say "Y-You came back? Why?"

The man tapped his nose indicating he would be telling him any time soon, throwing a stick towards Jaune who caught it before Jaune had to raise it in defence to stop his head getting taken off by… wait was that a hunter weapon?

The man swung again lazily and Jaune wasn't quick enough, the end of the blunt weapon striking his ribs and dropping him to his knees.

"Jeeze kid I told you id train you, so get back up and try again"

It continued like that for a few hours until the orange haired man got bored of beating him up and threw him a handful of coins.

"Get yourself some new clothes and food, I'll be back tomorrow"

With that he left, but he always returned the next day to keep training him.

Roman as he found out his name was would spend hours with Jaune, training him to fight, steal, to think as he fights and of course dirty tricks, lots and lots of dirty tricks.

"honour is for suckers' kid" He had once told him "Those who fight by the rules will die by the rules, people like us, we survive because in a fight its always life or death and we choose life".

After a few months Roman unlocked Jaunes Aura and kept training him to fight and kill, he learned in that time of Jaunes hatred of the white fang and once he felt Jaune was ready he took him back to the ruins of Jaunes family home.

Searching through the wreckage for a day and a night until they found what they were looking for, Crocea Mors lay with its collapsible shield, these would be the items of Jaunes Crusade against the bastards that took it all from him.

Roman however had to leave shortly after, leaving Jaune alone as he only came back to Vacuo twice a year, each time for massive heists which he and Jaune would partake in, on the later ones even Neo made an appearance.

Romans little protegee did fine on his own though, he had trained the kid for years and once he got the reports of the white fang massacres, he couldn't keep the smile off his face.

/

Well something is bound to go wrong he thought as he descended towards the forest floor.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello all this is my fourth chapter to the story.**

 **Looking to upload 1-2 a week but it all depends on work.  
Had a few days off work due to an illness to I crashed out a longer one for you guys.  
Hope u enjoy.**

* * *

Jaune crashed into the forest floor, his Aura taking the blow as he placed his shield below himself on the descent to lessen the impact to his body.

Landing in the forest canopy with a great impact, cracking the dirt and kicking up dust with his landing as he scanned his surroundings, just general forestry and shrubbery as he slowly moved through the scenery.

Keeping himself low to the ground as to not be seen by whatever grim were prowling the area he headed in a general north direction, having purposely landed far more southward than the rest of the students.

He could hear noises all around, it had been a long time since he had been on what could be called a battle field, at least six months as he headed slowly and cautiously though the colourful canopy.

A growl alerted him from his right and a second from the left, could it be attracted by his negativity? Probably. He crouched lower to the ground and remained still, with Crocea Mors in one hand and the shield in the other he awaited the inevitable charge.

Ah grim, how predictable

As A Beowulf leaped from a bush from the left in full out sprint Jaune met its charge head on, deflecting its blow upwards with his shield to give him an opening at the creature's neck.

Deflecting the blow upwards gave Jaune an appreciation of just how large the creature was, representing almost a part wolf part man and standing at over 8 ft. It towered over him, which of course gave an easy target to strike at.

With a strong thrust he pierced the Beowulf's neck, impaling the grim through the throat as it gagged for breath, a splash of blood running down the blade as the creature scratched at its throat, choking on its own blood before slowly turning to dust on his blade, spinning back from a slash from the opposite direction as the second Beowulf made itself know.

Ducking under a powerful blow which would have taken his head off he smashed the shield sideways into the creature's face causing it to reel back in pain with a metallic crunch of metal on bone, before Crocea Mors claimed another victim, slicing in an upward arc across the creature's face before he brought the blade in a downward strike to tear the creatures face in half. Bits of brain and facial tissue exploded from the wounds as Crocea Mors had quite literally cut the monsters head in half.

Jaune watched with morbid curiosity as the grim dissolved into dust, he would never understand just how that worked.

With an amused shake of his head he marched forward through the brush and shrubbery, not caring for the noise he made, after his fight with the Beowulf's he figured they had made enough noise to attract other attention.

A loud howl nearby had him smirking in anticipation, adrenaline rushing to his muscles as he entered a clearing, rolling his neck and shoulders to loosen them up.

Retracting his shield back to the sheath and attaching it to his hip he held the sword outwards, pointing to where the sound of howling and pounding of feet were getting close, a sick smile adorned his features. Ah how he loved the thrill of battle, he had almost forgot how good it felt.

Rustling in the bushes all around him and he sniffed the air, looking up to see black smoke billowing into the air, did someone set the forest on fire?

Feeling a cool rush of air behind him and kicking in years of training he rolled forward, coming out of the tumble to see an alpha Beowulf which had tried to pounce on him from behind, taking advantage of his moment of distraction to stalk behind him. The creature was much larger than any normal Beowulf and well armoured, standing at 10 feet tall with blood dripping from the jagged teeth which protruded its maw. There were wounds across its chest, slight slashes from cutting weapons by the looks of it and a few bullet wounds adorned its hideous facial features, some close to the eyes.

Signs of a struggle.

Has it claimed a victim? One of the huntsmen perhaps?

The beast surged forward, fury and bloodlust guiding its steps as it thundered towards him on all fours.

Realising he couldn't take a charge like that head on he steeled his nerves up until the beast was almost upon him, stepping sideways to avoid the creatures gaping maw which sought to tear him to shreds, he ducked under the swipe from its right arm, claws sailed above his head as the beast passed him. Not seeing an opening to strike Jaune span to face the direction of the beast once more.

It snarled once again, shaking its head from left to right and snapping its teeth, blood from its last victim dripping from its three-inch fangs onto the cold earth below.

Jaune took a deep breath as it began to charge.

Don't lose it, stay in control.

Once again following the same sort of pattern it leapt at him with intent to tear him to pieces and devour him.

This time Jaune dived under the creature just as it leapt for him, whipping the concealed pistol from under his coat he discharged three shots into the creature's face from point blank range, using the flat side of Crocea Mors to deflect a desperate attack from the beast, flicking its claw back towards it as Jaune skidded and span. Just in time to see the Beast crash into the sullen soil, kicking up dirt and rocks as it howled and snarled.

Jaune stay motionless, looking relaxed although his muscles were tense, ready to move at a moments notice. This thing was fast, faster than it should ever have been. No wonder it claimed a victim.

With a gentle shake of his head and a long sigh he vowed to find whoever had fallen to this creature and give them final rest.

He had the greatest respect for those who gave their lives in conflict, provided the cause was right of course.

The Alpha Beowulf snapped at him, its right eye bleeding profusely as one of the three bullets had hit their mark and taken out one of the beast's eye.

"Let's see your will to survive monster" he snarled venomously

It howled and charged.

Its hulking form bearing down on him as Jaune kicked up dirt in a dash towards the monster, slashing the first of its blows upwards and jumping back before the strike from its other claw could cleave him in two.

Jaune smirked and dashed into its guard, slamming the hilt of Crocea Mors into the chin of its gaping maw, smashing several teeth onto the canopy and ducking under its next attack to give him a clean shot of its unprotected side.

Gritting his teeth, he thrust forward with all his strength.

Crocea Mors biting deep into its flank until it was buried up to the hilt.

The Beowulf thrashed around causing Jaunes grip on the blade to loosen before it slashed at him, but he was expecting it.

Ducking under the next blow by kneeling and letting go of Crocea Mors, he reached into his boot and flung one of the concealed knives directly into its other eye, blinding the creature which staggered back, standing to its full height with blood gushing from both its blinded eyes as well as the mortal wound to its side.

Jaune smirked at its pain.

As the creature hobbled back, scratching at its eyes in an attempt to remove the blockage, panting and snarling.

Jaune had rushed to its side, grasping and withdrawing Crocea Mors with a red flow of blood.

The Beowulf gave one last attack, aiming roughly where it thought him to be, its claws buried into the soil as Jaune had side stepped, with a last brutal swing he sliced upwards into the creatures' neck.

Striking all the way through to the other side and free as its head toppled to the ground with a satisfying slapping sound.

Some of the Monsters blood flecked to his lips which he whipped away.

His emotionless eyes scanned the surroundings as his prey began to dissolve until he found the opening in the bushes it had crashed through.

With a frown and a grim expression, he marched at a fast pace through, tracing the path which the beast had taken for a few minutes, until he came to a halt and closed his eyes at what he had seen.

With a long breath he opened them and approached the corpse, well what was left of it.

It was the Faunus girl who he had witnessed being pushed by the arrogant teen.

She lay slumped with her back against a tree, arms at her sides with her weapon scattered a few feet from her by the looks of it a one-handed Scimitar perhaps with some shifting capabilities to become a gun too if what he saw of the wounds already inflicted on the beast were caused by her and not another then it must also be a gun of some kind.

Looking back to the fallen huntress he saw one of her legs had been literally devoured from her body, her throat with sunken teeth marks which fountained blood from where it had pierced her veins.

Her hollow eyes looking up to the sky, if anything her expression was peaceful.

Perhaps she died knowing she did her best for what she believed in.

Jaune kneeled by her and brushed his hand over her eyes to close them.

"Rest now, you did your best, others shall carry your mantle for you"

Picking up and storing her weapon across his back along with Crocea Mors he headed back in his original direction.

Sparing one last glance back at her body.

Sorry, life isn't fair, only the strong survive.

With that grim thought he headed forward once more, a scowl on his face.

Clearly Beacon cared little for its aspiring students, or perhaps that's why the teachers had looked so imposing earlier.

Stress? Perhaps knowing some would fall during this exam?

His thoughts strayed to the few others he had met the previous day and the morning prior.

Wonder if they are still alive?

/

Pyrrha took steady breaths as she caught the end of the boy she had met earlier Jaune she recalled and the Alpha Beowulf.

He was certainly skilled, though there was something about the way he spoke and acted that put her off, which stopped her approaching him immediately to seal a partnership, he just didn't seem human.

She stalked him, being as quiet as she could, she had seen his skill in combat and had to assume he would notice her approach if she made any noise.

She watched his lips form a thin line as he headed from where the Beowulf had come from, stalking him from a distance she peaked through the bush to see the corpse he knelt before.

She let out a silent gasp and held a hand over her mouth, she hadn't ever witnessed death before, especially not like this.

The brutality was horrifying to her and she was forced to look away and close her eyes.

All her training in mistral couldn't prepare her for seeing death for the first time.

Yet when she opened her eyes to look at the scene unfolding, Jaune looked saddened but not shocked.

This wasn't his first time seeing death.

Her eyes narrowed a bit, what life did you live before this?

"Rest now, you did your best, others shall carry your mantle for you"

She heard him utter sadly.

She bit her lip as she watched him gently close the dead girl's eyes before standing to collect the fallen girls weapon.

He strode to through the forestry only to stop and spare one last remorseful glance at the fallen girl.

Eyes narrowing, she made her decision, he would be her partner.

Perhaps he wouldn't be what she hoped for, after all she was always looking for a close friend… maybe someone more, she always thought if she could have someone who saw her as more than just a fighter and celebrity that she would feel complete.

But as she looked at the boy she realised, she wanted to help him more than anything.

She sighed and headed around towards where he was headed.

Stopping once she had ran ahead of him to wait in the clearing for him, taking steady breaths and attempting to purge the image of the fallen huntress from her mind she adopted an easy smile.

Act as always Pyrrha.

She watched as the boy marched into the clearing with a scowl on his face, before he abruptly stopped to stare at her.

She smiled at him and walked slowly over to him, their eyes had met.

She looked into his dark blue eyes and held out her hand.

"looks like we are partners Jaune"

He tilted his head to one side and shook her hand.

She couldn't help but notice he looked quite innocent like that, despite the scar on his cheek which ran from below his eye almost down to his jawline.

"Looks like it" He answered back.

Hmm that was a little wooden.

She let go of his hand and pointed through a line of thin foliage.

"I saw a few others heading in that direction, I believe that is where the relics are kept"

She started to walk slowly in the direction and after a few seconds heard footsteps following her.

Good he was following.

Something about her new partners mood was just off, you could say it was shock, but he didn't react that way.

He just seemed really saddened.

She turned her head to look at him out of the corner of her eye

"Did you know her?"

His head shot up to her "who?"

She cringed internally, ah he didn't know she was watching

"I saw you earlier, when you found the girl"

He shook his head slightly.

"No, I didn't know her"

"Did it… remind you of something?"

His lips set in a thin line and he didn't answer.

Damn it Pyrrha don't push too early.

She sighed and shook her head "Sorry that was insensitive"

He raised an eyebrow at her as if getting an apology was alien

"Uhm, its fine don't worry about it. You said you saw others heading this way earlier, why didn't you become partners with one of them?"

A change of subject she noted but decided to go along with it, although the question wasn't as easy to answer as she liked.

"None of them were what I was looking for"

"And I was?" he tilted his head again

She nodded and internally groaned, well that definitely came out wrong, she made it sound like she was romantically interested in him. Which she wasn't.

Well he wasn't bad to look at, looking a bit rugged but kind of cute.

She groaned and shook her head, too soon to think about this, there is a mission to accomplish, hopefully without losing any more students, she eyed her partner without him noticing, I don't want him to die like that other girl.

/

They walked for a while in mostly silence broken by Pyrrha trying to make small talk with him which he couldn't bring himself to respond to with any passion.

Every time he thought of the girl he would get flash backs of those he lost.

Faces flashing into mind of his four lost sisters, of his mom and dad, some of the kids he was forced to work with under the white fang, a few friends or allies he made in the criminal underground during his fight against the white fang in vacuo.

All those faces flashed before him, eyes cold and dead, they seemed to stare into his very soul and judge him.

They judged him unworthy, unworthy of living where they fell.

Some he knew he was directly responsible for their deaths.

He remembered Gregory White, his partner in crime after he got in with Torchwick.

He remembered fighting alongside him in the subway system when they got a tip off about white fang movement, how they had encountered a demon in red.

A long red blade and a vicious combat style, combined they were no match for the monster.

Jaune distractedly rubbed his forearm where a scar lay from the Fang operatives blade.

Gregory had shot out the support beams and trapped himself in the subway with no escape as Jaune lay bleeding against the doorway.

How he had wanted to dig through it to where he knew they stood fighting but with his injury he could no longer fight to any successful degree, he knew going back in there was certain death and so did Gregory.

That day his friend had given his life fighting who he would later learn was Adam Taurus, just so that Jaune could live.

Failure his mind had screamed, how he hated it, all his training and he was weak even then.

Should he meet that man again however, he would take his life or fall trying.

For his lost comrades and all others Adam had killed, he would avenge them all.

So distracted was he that hadn't realised Pyrrha had come to a standstill.

He bumped into her back "sorry, lost in tho-"he was cut off by her shushing him.

Jaune could hear rustling and moving in the brush and shrubbery.

Right he needed to focus, he was in the Emerald forest after all.

Two Ursa thundered out of the bush, stopping side by side as they faced Jaune and Pyrrha, who in turn drew their weapons, Pyrrha drew Milo and Akouo whilst Jaune drew Crocea Mors and held it at his side, pointing towards the one on the left.

"Left, or right?" Pyrrha spared him a glance

"Left" he said and gashed forward kicking up dirt.

He jumped before he reached the Ursa, slicing downwards with Crocea Mors in both hands, bringing it down in an almighty slash that cut right through the bone of the Ursas' arm which had been raised to try to swipe him out of the air.

Ducking as he landed to stay below the Ursas swipe from its remaining hand as it bellowed and roared he leapt from a crouching position up past its dismembered limb and onto its shoulder, his blade trailing outwards on the way to pierce through the Ursas neck silencing its pained roars. Staying on its shoulder Jaune rode the beast downwards leaving Crocea Mors in its neck so as it collapsed onto the floor the blade was thrust up to the hilt in its neck.

Knowing the Grimm would disintegrate to ash he looked over to see how his partner was doing their eyes as she too stood on a disintegrating Ursa, Milo and Akouo in hand as Jaune collected Crocea Mors from his slain foe.

She smiled a bit at him "Impressive"

He nodded to her "And yourself" beaconing with his hand to the direction they were walking "Lead on partner"

She nodded and trudged off towards what he had to assume was the direction of the temple, following at her heels.

/

Yang stood with her new partner Blake, at first, she thought the girl and her wouldn't get along but after fighting some Ursa together they started to bond at least a little.

Nothing like a friendship forged in battle eh?

Still nervous and glancing around for her sister she stood by her partner, watching the surroundings for any threats or students that came through.

Her anxiousness at an all time high before she saw a flash of red crash into her from the bush.

Embracing her sister in a tight hug she sighed to herself, she is safe, we are safe, its all going to be okay.

"Hey Rubes, what took you so long?"

Ruby groaned into Yangs chest as her partner, Weiss Shnee followed suit, looking particularly pissed with her luck.

Yang couldn't care less as long as her sister was safe.

Besides if this girl gave her adorable sister any trouble, she grinned, Yang would deal with her herself.

Weiss came to stand by them and went to speak up before a few others joined them.

A girl with purple hair, a couple of average looking guys, another girl came skipping from the woods and it looked like they had a large group forming.

Safety in numbers right?

Oh how she hoped she was right.

Next came a quiet man in green and a bubbly excitable girl in pink.

Nora and Ren she learned were the names of their new companions as they also scoured through the "relics" which turned out to just be chess pieces, well that was disappointing.

Finally through the bushes came Jaune and a woman in red and gold which she didn't recognise.

Jaune she smirked, he was a fun one, someone who actually teased back to her.

She liked him although she didn't know much about him, he always seemed emotionless or wooden which was a stark contract to the scowl on his face.

Had something happened?

She hoped not, but there was something about the girl in golds eyes which told her of bad news.

They joined the group as students she didn't know talked between themselves.

/

As the chatter dies down a girl who Jaune didn't recognise with purple hair stepped forward with shaking legs, her eyes firmly glued to the weapon handle which was protruding from his back.

"I-is that… H-how?" She shook her head and took a deep breath, looking at him dead in his cold eyes, her eyes showed she had questions that she didn't want answers too, his showed nothing as always.

"That weapon, where did you find it?"

Jaune sighed and glanced off to the side.

Fuck he didn't need this today.

"Why do you ask?" he answered cautiously.

"That weapon belongs to my sister. Is…" She never finished, her lips set in a thin line.

"I'm sorry, she fell" He said bluntly.

Gasps were heard from around, Pyrrha looking at Jaune with concern as Ruby and the rest showed a wide range of emotion on their faces. Some looking Neutral in the case of Blake, but he could tell she wasn't exactly elated by the news. Pyrrha and Nora showing concern for Jaune plain on their face, but he wasn't as bothered as he would have been had it been his first encounter with death. No to Jaune death was a constant companion.

Yang had a hand on her sisters' shoulder as Ruby shook a little but kept a strong exterior appearance.

Weiss and Ren stood with the rest, looking saddened by the news.

The girl whose sister had fell looked up at him with tears pouring down her face, her grief and pain so clear to Jaune that he had to close his eyes for a moment. He never liked dealing with emotional stuff like this.

She reached forward with shaking hands and Jaune gently gave her the scimitar.

"She fought until her last breath, she died bravely" He lay what he hoped was a comforting hand on her shaking shoulder as he felt a hand touch his own, looking out the corner of his eye to see it was his partner. With a distraught look on her face, he gave a small sad smile to her as the sister fell into her friend's arms, collapsing to her knees with sobs wracking her body.

"W-what did this?" She asked in between wracking sobs, Jaune could feel the rage permeating from her frame.

"An Alpha Beowulf" He answered bluntly

A few more gasps

"An alpha?" Pyrrha questioned, looking Jaune up and down to check for injuries.

"It's dead" Jaune said.

The girl nodded her thanks into her friends' shoulder.

Yang stepped forward "Damn, you took out an Alpha?" She looked to Pyrrha who nodded

"I caught the end of the fight and the… body" She shivered at the memory and yang didn't press the issue.

She smirked a bit "Still, damn lady killer, didn't know you were so strong" She smirked at him and Ruby groaned.

"Seriously stop flirting in front of me!" Ruby growled at yang who winked back at her.

Jaune shook his head amused, that women made him smile.

He was about to return in kind but for the stampeding of feet and the beating of wings.

Grimm had come.

/

He looked to the teen mourning the loss of her sister and turned to her friend which was holding her

"Get her behind the lines now, they will target her!"

After all they were attracted by negativity.

He drew Crocea Mors and equipped its collapsible shield, standing in front of the pair protectively with a snarl on his face.

Pyrrha took his right and Yang took his left with Nora and Ren covering the left flank and Weiss and Ruby covering the Right.

Blake nodded to them "Ill scout ahead" she said as she dashed towards the deep forest where the stamping off feet could be heard.

"Wait!" yang cried only to be silenced by Jaune holding out a hand, she looked to him frustrated but after meeting the cold merciless blue of his eyes her anger waned.

Fuck he was serious.

Pyrrha looked to him in shock, this was the most emotion she had seen on his face, Jaune looked furious, eyes like steel and a harsh frown adorned his face, a snarl on his lips.

"Watch the sky!" He roared, voice uttering such command that all of them looked up to see the beating of massive wings.

That's a big Nevermore

"Aim high" He roared as Yang fired off gauntlet shots into the sky towards the beast swooping towards them.

Milo turned from a spear into a shotgun as she too fired.

Noras hammer turned into… wait was that a grenade launcher?!

It fired rounds into the air, none hitting but disrupting the Nevermore and make it slow its swoop.

Ruby firing shots from her sniper rifle but most of them bounced off its tough armour.

Weiss stood in a circle, firing ice blasts that crashed into the hulking form of the descending nevermore.

The huge beast shook off the shots but retreated due to the incoming fire and with a great flap of its wings flew back into the air out of range of their weapons.

"Anyone see Blake?" Ruby shouted above the noise.

"There!" Ren yelled as Blake ran from the bushes at high speed, a pack of Beowulves on her tail and gaining fast.

"She won't make it!" Bruce Silver yelled, charging forward, tailing him was one of the other students he had met prior John Autumn he remembered.

Bruce wielding a massive spear which transformed into a heavy machine gun, firing rounds into the pack with critical efficiency.

John wielding two axes and standing in front of his friend, ready to take the charge.

Blakes eyes widened as she ran towards them "Run back to the line!"

Bruce kept firing, with narrowed eyes, his bullets finding their mark as scores of Beowulves fell to his rapid fire, barely putting a dent in the pack which continuously closed in on them.

Jaune swore loudly and moved, he didn't remember being that close to the two brave fools but the next moment he had passed Blake.

Her eyes widened and there were a few cries from behind and Jaune slid below a ferocious slice to strike upwards and decapitate the first Beowulf.

Blocking a second blow to his left he smashed the hilt into a thirds' face which sought to devour him from his right flank, he knocked the creature back with the powerful blow as he span Crocea Mors, bringing it down in a ferocious blow that literally cleaved the Grimm in front of him in half as it pounced.

Blood splashed onto his face making him growl and snarl as he lost himself to the bloodshed.

Dodging back from the Beowulf to his left he entered the guard of the Grimm to his right, stabbing upwards into its unprotected neck with speed too fast for the monster to follow.

It hit true and pierced the monsters throat as he span back to slam the shield into the other Grimms' face, leaving the first to choke to death on its own blood.

Gunshots could be heard from all around as the others caught up to join the Fray.

He brought Crocea Mors in an arc slicing into the chest of a Beowulf before ripping it free and slicing upwards into another, splitting its head in half with ease.

His eyes glanced to the left as he saw Bruce spin amongst three of the monsters, delivering a violent slash that split all of them in half in one sweeping blow.

On his right he saw Yang deliver a crunching uppercut to an Ursa which had joined the Fray.

She delivered a combo of hooks and crosses to push the Grimm back before snapping a kick at its knee which connected, shattering the bone as her right hook followed, smashing its head to pieces in a devastating blow. Her eyes met Jaunes and she shouted something to him which sounded desperate as well as the look on her face.

Why did she look like that? This was fun!

He roared, smashing his shield into the face of the Beowulf closest to him, bringing Crocea Mors in a low sweep cutting at the knee of the creature causing it to drop onto one leg, allowing him to slash the blade through its skull with a satisfying crunch of blade through bone.

Laughing like a madman he dashed past another blow, ducking around under it and sliding past the beast to get behind it, dealing a devastating blow to its back and piercing what he perceived to be its heart, or where it should be at least.

It seemed to do the job as the Beowulf turned to dust upon his gleaming blade, slowly working his way through them to the Alpha.

Kill the Alpha and the biggest threat was dealt with.

/

What the fuck was wrong with Jaune?!

Yang ducked another blow and delivered a spinning kick to the Grimms side, delivering three quick jabs and ducking a blow to throw a powerful haymaker which smashed its face in.

She panted as she looked towards her sister's friend and object of her entertainment.

He span amongst them, looking at home in the thick of the battle, slaying Grimm left and right with a manic grin to his face.

She fought on through the Grimm which approached trying to reach him.

He's lost it.

She needed to reach him, to bring him back behind the lines before he got himself killed!

Glancing behind her for a second she saw her sister with Weiss, Blake, Nora and Ren facing off against the nevermore, shooting it out of the sky with a barrage of fire before delivering slicing blows to its flanks and wings.

They were wearing it down slowly that much she could tell, which meant they would be indisposed for a while.

Her eyes flashed red, so it was up to her a Pyrrha to get Jaune back under control.

The Spartan was doing well, slicing through groups of Grimm only for more to come, like herself she was bogged down by sheer weight of numbers, a problem Jaune didn't seem to have as he danced among them, cutting down all who got within the reach of his blade.

Looking to the last two who fought with them she saw they fared even worse, Bruce and John stood back to back. Surrounded by Ursa and Beowulves, literally fighting for their lives, she could tell they wouldn't hold for long, but what could she do?

She wanted to look after her sister who was okay, but would Ruby forgive her if she let her friend die?

Would she forgive her if she let innocent people die?

She closed her eyes and fire shot out from her in a burning rage.

She would save Jaune no matter what.

"Oh no" she muttered coming to a halt as Jaune dashed out the back of the pack towards a new sound, the scuttering of feet as a massive death stalker stormed to meet his charge.

She watched him duck a swipe from its massive claw and blow the second, slashing his blade into its face which bounce off the tough armour.

Jumping back out of range he whipped something from his coat.

Was that a fucking gun?!

He shot three times into its face, all of the shots bouncing off its armour as he held his blade and gun in each hand.

Where was his shield?

Her eyes trailed a sheath at his hip she couldn't remember, maybe that's it?

Her eyes snapped to a startled cry as she saw Bruce on his knees clutching a wound in his arm, John slicing through an Ursa which sought his friends head but looking worse for wear.

A blow from a Beowulf caught his side as he collapsed, his aura spent.

Pyrrha making her way towards them but yang closed her eyes…

It was too late.

A hoarse scream made her cringe as she opened her eyes to see John on the floor with a Beowulf on top of him, his head in its mouth as its teeth split into his skull, he struggled and clawed at its face, swinging his axe into its side again and again but it was no use.

As he screamed the Grimm decided to end it, snapping its jaws shut and crushing the poor boys' skull.

Bruce had already died from a slash to the gut which had disembowelled him.

She screamed in rage as she charged towards Jaune, no more please

Make it stop!

/

Jaune parried another it's the deathstalkers strikes from its claw and rolled out of the way of its stinger as it came crashing into the earth where he once stood, its other claw soared towards him, he gritted his teeth and took the blow to his side, firing off four more shots in quick succession, this time some found their mark, shooting out one its eyes and causing it to recoil in shock.

Jaune hit the floor hard, rolling and flipping back onto his feet as he dashed into its guard, slashing three times into its eyes, each blade strike finding its mark and digging deep into its skull but not felling the Grimm.

Spinning back, he shot twice more into its open mouth and backed away from its claw.

He glanced back to his comrades to see only two had remained, Bruce and John lay fallen with blood cascading from their open wounds, John missing his head.

He sighed heavily, nothing ever goes to plan.

Yang reached him as he parried a few blows from its claws.

She dashed into its guard as Jaune made an opening for her by deflecting its claws.

Yangs eyes bright red she smashed her shotgun gauntlets into its face in five quick and powerful strikes, almost destroying its gaping maw as Jaune dodged one its blows to slide at the joint of its claw, cutting through it completely to render it useless.

Yang continued to work on its face, dodging the sting from the tail as she pummelled it with devastating blows.

Glancing back he noticed his partner holding off swarms of Grimm to allow them to finish off the deathstalker.

From what he had witnessed of her fighting she would be fine.

Putting away his gun he drew a knife out of his belt and threw it at the deathstalkers tail before drawing the second and doing the same.

The first missed its mark and bounced off its touch armour but the second lodged into the joint where the stinger met the armour.

Drawing his shield and forming it back to full size he threw it at the stinger.

Yangs distraction proved useful as it hit its target, slashing through the stinger making it fall onto its head, which Yang quickly haymaker.

The force of the blow slamming its own stinger through its armour and into its brain as the Grimm expired.

Glancing back he could see that the others had taken care of the Nevermore, it lay decapitated and dissolving on the ground as Pyrrha had finished off the remainders of the large pack.

Panting with exhaustion Yang glared at him.

"Don't.. fucking.. do that… again"

He tilted his head to one side as he always did and smiled at her

"Do what?"

No one could blame her for flinging herself at Jaune in an attempt to kill him.

He simply ducked out of the way and laughed.

How? Hoe could he laugh at a time like this?

Ruby dashed over and embraced her sister in a tight hug which she returned, shaking slightly.

Weiss gasped and sighed at the sight as Nora and Ren stood close to each other, eyes sharp.

Blakes lips set in a thin line as she looked away with Pyrrha watching Jaune.

Poor guys.

Jaune walked towards them with leaden feet, kneeling before Bruce to close his eyes and sparing a remorseful glance at John.

"You both did your best, now rest my friends."

With that he marched towards the temple to pick up his piece, the rest of the group following, looking unsure of what to do.

Pyrrha stepped in, picking up a piece without looking and striding towards the path back to beacon, the rest following suit.

All of which looking like they needed to forget this.

/

It took only around half an hour to get back inside the main hall from where all the action had taken place.

Jaune walked beside his partner who he had some newfound respect for considering how she had fought, in fact all of this little group he had respect for as fighters.

Some had crippling and obvious weaknesses, others were more all-round fighters, he didn't doubt he could beat them all though, perhaps the only exception being his partner, she was a monster like him.

He looked at her and gave a shark like grin while she wasn't looking, oh he looked forward to testing her mettle in the arena.

She was just as strong and fast as him in regard to physical combat ability.

He held the edge on experience though and in battle that can be the difference between life and death.

Her semblance gave her a massive edge in combat against him, but his use of extra weapons and trickery would come in handy to help counter that.

It looked to be an interesting and competitive struggle and from what he had seen of his partner, he could assume she was competitive.

They came to a halt in a line with other students to their back as the headmaster called out teams.

"Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, Sky lark. The four of you collected the black Bishop pieces and shall now be known as team Cardinal, led by Cardin Winchester"

The boy nodded as if it was obvious he would be chosen as leader.

The rest of his team didn't look surprised either as Cardin thumped his chest one and marched off the stage with his team in tow.

Jaune simply glowered at the boy, good choice Ozpin, pick the blatant racist as team leader.

"Next up we have Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren."

They take the steps up to the podium, Jaune and Pyrrha leading with Ren and Nora following close behind, they stand in a line facing the headmaster.

Jaune and Ozpins eyes meeting for a brief moment before his gaze wandered to the rest of the team.

"These four collected the White rook pieces and together form Team Juniper, led by Jaune Arc."

Had he been drinking at that moment he would have spat it out.

Eyes wide he stared up at the headmaster with an applause from his team and from the audience.

He snarled at the headmaster

"What the fuck?"

Noras' hand clamped over his mouth before he could voice his complaints or worse yet assault the man.

He wasn't leadership material, for Oums sake he had criminal contacts and couldn't care less about exams and theory of being a hunter.

Now he had to lead people?

Ugh this day keeps getting worse.

Pyrrhas' hand rested on his shoulder and he turned his head to look at her.

She smiled beautifully at him "Congratulations Jaune" she said softly as they dragged Jaune off stage before he could kick up a fuss.

Standing back in line after being dragged by Pyrrha and Nora with them on each side of him.

They had a hand from each placed on his shoulder, so he couldn't assault the headmaster, realising he had no choice in the matter he stood still, giving the headmaster, a murderous glare hoping to cause some sort of heart failure, so he wouldn't have to lead anyone.

But alas fate wasn't on his side as Ozpin called up the next team.

Ruby, Yang, Blake and Weiss stepped up onto the podium to be labelled as team RWBY, much to Yangs' delight as she picked up and hugged the girl.

Jaune allowed himself to smile, she would be a good leader, that much he could tell, just as he could tell that he wouldn't be a good leader.

His eyes passed over members of his own team.

Pyrrha seems happy with Ruby being made a leader as she smiled up at the girl but couldn't clap as that would be releasing Jaune.

With a groan he clapped his hands and rolled his eyes at Pyrrha when she looked at him quizzically.

She too joined in clapping as did the rest of team JNPR.

Nora bouncing excitably and Ren looking stoic as ever.

Pyrrha had seemed happy with him being thrust into leadership position much to his annoyance and the others hadn't voiced any complaints.

Team RWBY however he could already see that Weiss was fuming at the choice of leadership.

Ah arrogance how much it could ruin.

As the four girls left the stage did the headmaster step forward once more.

"I ask for a moment of silence for those brave aspiring students who fell in battle during this year's initiation, their names will be added to the memorial which lays in the gardens to the east".

The names of those who had fell flashed onto the screen, eight in total.

Eliza Raven, he spied the name at the very top of the list. The first hunter or huntress to die, the girl he had found dead, mauled by the Alpha Beowulf.

He spied two other names he recognised from the group fight against the grim Bruce Silver and John Autumn.

He closed his eyes and lowered his head to pay respect to those three who he knew had fought to their final breaths for what they believed in.

After a moment of choked sobs and respectful silence the headmaster called an end to the opening ceremony, explaining that their dorm rooms were listed on one of the boards to the far-left side of the hall copies of their own room number would be sent to their scrolls slightly later.

"ooh oooh I want to go see" Nora exclaimed before dashing off, with a put-upon sigh and a nod from Jaune Ren followed, probably to make sure she didn't get into any trouble.

Seeing as this was Nora… there is a high chance it would.

He felt a gaze on him and turned his head to see his partner looking at him with almost a teasing look.

"Ugh, stop"

She giggled a bit "Sorry, it's just I didn't expect you to have that sort of reaction to being chosen leader. Most would love the chance to prove themselves"

He poked her arm "Correct me if I'm wrong but you are only happy because you dodged the bullet yourself"

She gave him a shit eating grin and he rolled his eyes.

He could tell she was hiding her emotions, hiding the guilt and pain of what she had seen that day.

Just the same when he looked to team RWBY, all smiles were strained with emotion held behind.

Even Nora was affect and Ren… well he was Ren.

Deciding its best to let them get over it themselves he chose to ignore it.

Waiting in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before seeing Noras excitable form bouncing back over to them, dragging Ren behind her.

"Room 212" she was about to go on, but Ruby seemed to just appear in front of them in a cluster of roses.

"212?! We are 213!" she squealed excited.

"We are neighbours!" Nora squealed back as the rest of team RWBY arrived in tow.

Yang gave a concerned look to Weiss who was glowering at their team leader before she smiled and winked at Jaune.

"You got some nice moves lady killer, maybe you could show them to me sometime… just the two of us"

Ruby choked and turned to glare at her sister while Blake and Weiss face palmed, clearly they had gotten used to her already.

Jaune smirked, stepping into her guard so they were face to face

"Well we are across the halls, perhaps we could do some room sharing" He winked

She allowed a sultry smirk to adorn her features as she casually threw her arms around Jaunes neck, who in return wrapped his arms around her hips.

"Sounds like a good idea lady killer" she looked deeply into his eyes.

Ruby looked shell shocked as did the rest of NPR, Blake groaned loudly, and Weiss looked ready to blow.

"W-what do you think you two are doing!" she screeched causing Blake to wince at the volume.

Yang turned her head slightly to eye the girl.

"I think that's obvious" she kept eye contact for a few moments before bursting out laughing and stepping back from Jaune who in turn let go of her and stepped back with a grin to his features.

"We were just fucking with you guys!" She kept laughing "You should have seen your faces!"

The rest of team RWBY gave her a flat look as did NPR to their leader who just shrugged casually

"Well can you blame me?" he asked with a grin, after all their reaction as priceless.

Blake actually flushed at that and Yangs mouth gaped for a few seconds before grinning up at him.

"I certainly can't, how about you and me..." she gasped as Ruby and Weiss grabbed hold of each arm, dragging her away with Blake in tow before the Faunus turned back to him with a groan.

"Please don't encourage her, she is hard enough to deal with as it is. Have a pleasant evening"

With that she departed leaving team JNPR alone.

He turned back to them rubbing his hands together.

"Well leads head to our room" trying to ignore their shell shocked looks he sauntered towards the exit.

NPR soon following suit still not believing their leader actually had a personality, the thought was shocking, most of all to Pyrrha who couldn't get anything out of the guy despite being his partner.

Just being around Yang caused at least some reaction from him even if it was just reacting to her teasing advances for amusement.

She watched the back of their leaders' head.

What a strange guy.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey all**

 **Chapter 5 here**

 **Chapter 6 probably Thursday or sunday**

* * *

By the time team Juniper has reached their dorm, their sister team Rwby had already entered theirs and closed the door. Some crashing and arguing could be heard behind the closed doors but Jaune certainly didn't care.

Looking to the rest of his team he could tell they had other things on their mind too.

Pyrrha looking distraught as she seemed to stay closer to him than was strictly comfortable, but he would allow it without mentioning.

Looking back to Ren and Nora he saw much of the same, with Nora staying by Rens' side no matter where he moved too.

Another sign of an ill omen was simply how quiet Nora was, the normally bubbly and chatty girl was dead silent with a glum look to her face.

As for Ren he looked almost normal, but he knew he hid it well, there was the creasing under his eyes and tightening of his lips.

With a sigh he opened the door to what would be his new home for the foreseeable future, unless something went wrong of course.

So in Hindsight it might not be for long, bad luck and misfortune being common bedfellows of his.

Four single beds with a small bedside cabinet in between each, four desks also decorated the room with the same number of chairs.

Small shelves nailed into the wall above them for book storage and a massive window.

He hoped he could open it to little complaint from his team.

He fought for many years under the sweltering sun of Vacuo, but he had always preferred colder temperatures.

Why couldn't the white fang have more of a presence in Atlas he grumbled to himself.

"soooooo" he stretched the word out for a few seconds "Who wants what bed?"

Good attempt at conversation Jaune, his mind taunted him.

Fuck off brain you didn't help.

After a few awkward moments of silence, he sighed

"Ill have the one on the far-left side, Pyrrha you are next to mine, then Ren then Nora, feel free to voice any complaints"

Still silence.

With a roll of his eyes he moved to the bed he had claimed and flopped down onto his back on it.

If they wanted to take time to adjust to the real world then that's fine by him, there wasn't really anything he could do, he barely knew them after all and besides. His outlook on the situation wouldn't exactly be comforting.

Throwing his bag down by the side of his bed he lay against the pillow.

Ah how he had missed the comfort of beds,

He could just fall asleep any moment.

No, he couldn't, the room felt off even as the three of them moved to their respective beds.

Pyrrha sat carefully down on the edge of hers, facing Jaune as Ren and Nora did the same to their own, yet all seemed to be looking at him in some way.

What did they want?

He swivelled his head around to meet the green eyes of his partner.

"Something on your mind?"

She kept her eyes locked onto his "You could say that"

He rolled his eyes "then shoot"

"Just answer me this, how are you okay with what happened?" she asked sullenly

He raised an eyebrow "What part?" honestly, he didn't have a clue what was so bad, people die every day, people kill every day, Grimm eat people every day. That's life.

She sighed "That's what I'm talking about, we just saw two students get ripped to pieces by Grimm" she leaned forward with her eyes dark "and you don't even care".

Ren and Nora were silent through this, but he could tell they felt the same, were they disappointed in him?

"What are you expecting from me Pyrrha? Shock? Crying? I didn't know them" He growled.

It was Nora who spoke up "But that could have been one of us Jaune"

He rolled his eyes "From what I've seen, I doubt Grimm like that could take any one of us down."

A few seconds of silence before Ren spoke up.

"This isn't the first time you have seen something like this is it?"

Jaunes eyes narrowed, was he trying to pry into his past?

As little as he cared about his actions in Vacuo, it would be problematic for that little detail to slip, especially all the trouble it would cause with Faunus students and humans alike.

He sighed and closed his eyes "no, it's not"

That detail couldn't hurt surely.

A few seconds of silence before he opened his eyes to see the sad look on the face of his team mates.

he shrugged at them "You get used to seeing it, everyone has their own way of coping or getting used to it. I'll admit I was surprised Beacon would allow students to die in initiation." He shrugged "But that's life, people die all the time and the job of a hunter is a dangerous one." He explained easily.

A few seconds ticked by before Pyrrha nodded "I guess you are right… we would have to see that at some point in our lives. I just wish I didn't have too"

Jaune smirked "Don't we all partner".

He relaxed again into his bed, the atmosphere feeling a bit better than before with their little chat and he finally felt like he could sleep.

"I'll go take a shower if that's alright with everyone?" Pyrrha spoke up, looking between them.

"That's fine, me and Renny will shower after" Nora spoke up with a small smile to the taller girl.

Ren nodded too signalling his support before her eyes searched out Jaune.

He waved a hand dismissively "enjoy" still not opening his eyes as Pyrrha stepped into their en suite bathroom, a few seconds later he could hear running water.

He could still feel the boys' eyes on him, Ren, he could already tell he was very analytical and that could become problematic.

However as long as he was careful with his activity outside of Beacon then Ren wouldn't be able to discover anything.

He sighed again, putting a lot of effort into moving to a sitting position facing Ren and Nora.

"So, what's your story? You two together?"

Nora answered, "We are together, but not together together"

To which Jaune raised his eyebrow

Ren sighed with a small smile "Don't worry about it, she means we have lived together for a long time is all"

Looked back to Noras' face he isn't sure that's how she meant it or wished it, but that's neither here nor there.

"Y-yeah of course" Nora mumbled making Jaune grin, ah typical teens.

Ren missed this of course and spoke to him again "What about you? You and Yang look pretty cosy together"

Jaune laughed a bit "Think she does it to wind up her sister, I just play along, Rubys' reactions are priceless"

Ren nodded and Nora left Rens side to lay down on her own bed and stretch.

"What do you think of their team?" Jaune suddenly asked.

Nora looked at him "I like them, Ruby and Yang are friendly enough, Blake is a bit quiet but im sure she is nice too. Weiss is well, Weiss"

Jaune chuckled a bit "couldn't have put it better myself".

The bathroom door swung open and Pyrrha stepped out, dressed in her sleeping clothes and using her towel to dry her hair as she sat on the edge of her bed.

"Your turn Jaune, just don't take too long im sure we all want to sleep soon" Pyrrha said getting nods from Ren and Nora.

Jaune nodded his thanks and headed into the bathroom, swinging the door shut and turning on the shower.

Getting undressed and stepping inside he sighed with bliss.

The hot water washing away much of the days stress as well as loosening his muscles a bit.

For the first time in a while he felt genuinely relaxed, but he knew it couldn't last.

He had a meeting to make with Roman soon.

His hands balled into fists, before he let out a long breath to calm himself.

What if Roman was working with the white fang? Would he have to kill him? Could he swing Roman back to his side?

A thousand little thoughts ran through his mind, perhaps Roman could work undercover for him?

But Romans all about numero uno as he would say, aka himself.

What's in it for Roman?

He couldn't find an answer which caused him to growl.

Steam started filling the shower stall as he let out a blissful sigh, looking up at the light.

"What are you doing now Roman?"

/

Roman stormed through one of his many warehouses, passing a few goons which cleared the way quickly as to not be caught up in his fury, at his side his multicoloured companion with an equally sized scowl on her face.

Why oh why had Cinder summoned them now?

It wasn't long ago they were interrupted stealing dust by the stupid kid in red only for Beacon to get involved and save her ass.

How had Beacon known? Maybe there is a rat in the midst of his men? Or more likely in those fucking animals he was forced to put up with.

Now with Jaune back it put him on edge as he worked with them, albeit not by choice but that would still put him and Neo in the kids firing line.

A quick glance to his partner saw her thinking along the same lines.

Jaune will blow everything wide open.

The kid is about a subtle as a fucking Nevermore, he would come crashing in and throw Cinders plans off, that much is certain.

However, it would also interfere with his own and that of the White fang.

Collateral damage he would say.

Roman sneered.

In a way it was good that Jaune was coming for a visit in a few days, it would allow Roman to take him out if he needs too, though if he can avoid it he will.

Jaune is no slouch to combat and even with himself and Neo it would be a heavy risk.

He doubted Jaune could kill them both, but escaping and planting explosives in his warehouses?

Yeah that's very likely.

He dropped the cigar he had been frantically puffing on and stomped on it, crushing the embers into the cold stone floor.

Rounding a corner and climbing the staircase to where he would be meeting Cinder he growled again.

What could she want?

There is surely no way she could know he was planning to use Jaune against her.

Heck she shouldn't even know of his existence other than the Vacuo Butcher.

But this was Cinder, her spies reached far and it's likely the White fang would have told her about his exploits as well as him and Romans relations.

This of course could make her suspicious of his loyalty.

Well to be fair she probably knew of his reluctance seeing as he was being held at gunpoint.

He pinched the bridge between his eyes and adopted an easy cocky smile.

Looking down at his partner who nodded up at him, looking neutral.

He knocked on the door to an upstairs office in one his southern warehouses.

"Enter" A seductive voice purred.

He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes as he opened the door and entered with Neo at his heels.

He saw a long set of creamy legs crossed over one another, leading up into black combat shorts which lay under an almost skin tight red dress.

Looking up he met the smouldering gaze of cinder, her raven locks covering one of her eyes as she smiled seductively at him.

"Ah Roman, I was wondering when you would arrive"

His eyes trailed to the table in front of her where he saw an open bottle of red wine.

His eye twitched, he had been saving that.

His eyes trailed back up to hers to see the clear amusement in them.

That bitch knew what she was doing.

"You know how it is Cindy" He grinned roguishly at her "I'm a busy man, many things to steal many people to kill"

He strode to the sofa opposite her and plopped himself down with Neo to his right.

Cinder was alone and unarmed in the room with the two of them.

But he knew it was a bait, if he attempted to kill her she would have them both killed in an instant.

He didn't know what semblance she had but she seemed to be able to create weapons from thin air, she was never unarmed and always dangerous.

He knew she also controlled fire, almost unconsciously rubbing the burn scar on his hand from the last time he had tried his luck in ignoring one of her commands.

His lips set in a thin line, how he wished he was rid of her.

Her eyes narrowed slightly at the nickname, but she wouldn't do anything yet.

Point one for him.

"Funny you should mention that Roman" She purred and leaned forward a bit "Because I've heard nothing from today or yesterday. Has someone scared little Roman?" She teased.

He winced a bit, she hit the nail on the head there, he hadn't sent her any reports of his actions since the night before when Jaune had messaged.

He was planning to inform her of the raid on a local dust shop in vale with the white fang but after the message from his old friend he held off messaging.

He felt himself standing between two beasts, both of which could be the death of him and both wanting his cooperation for opposite things.

It wouldn't be easy to keep playing this game, he knew that but all he had to do was have them aimed at each other and hope Jaune gave him an opening to crack her head open with Melodic Cudgel.

He realised his mistake when she smirked at him, shit he hadn't answered quick enough.

He opened his mouth, willing his brain to come up with an excuse but before he could speak she cut him off.

"Rhetorical question my dear, I know who has come to Vale, just as I know where he is currently staying, an old friend of yours shall we say?"

He growled and didn't speak, knowing it was foolish to try to lie to her.

"Oh, my I've rendered the mighty Torchwick speechless, guess I have that affect on men" She held a hand to her mouth and giggled into it, fluttering her eyelashes at him flirtatiously before her eyes turned cold and glared into his own.

"Of course, the White Fang sought to tell me why their entire branch in Vacuo fell, did you think you could sneak him into Vale without me knowing?" She demanded, her eyes flashing dangerously.

He held his hands up "Wait wait wait, I didn't sneak him in here, I don't control him Cindy, he goes where the White Fang are, that's all. I'm in as much shit as I can be with him because I'm working with them." He sent a pointed glare to her which she smirked at.

"Don't worry my dear Roman, if he becomes a threat to you or me then we shall have him killed, I understand he is quite dangerous."

That was the understatement of the year Roman thought.

Still he was doing a good job of pointing Cinder at Jaune, now he just needed to point him at her and watch the fireworks.

"You mentioned you and me but not the Fang" He stated simply to which she smiled seductively.

"As you well know the White Fang are useless, if he is as dangerous as the rumours say then we would be foolish to try to stop him from hunting them, as long as he doesn't interrupt our plans then he can kill as many as he wishes"

Roman shook his head

"The kid will interrupt any plans you have Cindy, he will find out where their bases are and strike, and as you know, some of them have some rather interesting stolen items in. The paladin for example?"

She frowned at that and her eyes flashed amber again, Neos eyes narrowed as she looked almost poised to strike.

Roman took a few breaths to steady himself, fuck this wasn't going to plan.

Cinder allowed herself to smile beautifully again at them "Perhaps I should meet with this young man myself"

No no no no no no his mind screamed

Roman coughed "I uh, don't see the point of such a meeting"

She smiled dangerously "Its not your job to see the point of it, its your job to organize it, so make it happen after your little rendezvous with him."

Romans eyes widened causing Cinder to giggle again and showed Roman his scroll.

His eyes closed, and he allowed a long hissing breath to escape him, one of her bloody brats had probably nabbed it from his lounge while he was out.

The truth is he had a bunch of scrolls all for different uses so some he would leave or lock away while he used different ones for different contacts, that black scroll was the one he used specifically for contact with Jaune, as it wasn't needed he locked it in his desk when he went out with Neo.

Before he returned he got the message to urgently meet Cinder, so he couldn't get back to check on it.

Those brats of hers would be some of the first to die.

"Maybe we have something in common, perhaps he could become a useful pawn in this little game, much like yourself Roman" She giggled and tossed it back to him.

"Or if he becomes a nuisance to us, then we can just have him taken care off" She purred again before waving a hand at them dismissively.

"Go now, but remember, I don't care how dangerous this young man is, your robberies don't stop and your reports to me don't stop. Is that clear?"

He nodded sharply before standing to leave.

Clearly this meeting was done with.

He gave a small sarcastic salute "A pleasure as always Cindy" he departed hurriedly with Neo and closed the door behind him.

Okay so taking the kid out was completely out of the question.

As much as he hated to admit it, he needed that kid and Cinder to get along.

He stormed back through his warehouse and lit a cigar, taking a few long drags on it before leaning against a crate with a thump.

Neo looked nervous, her smile strained as she knew just how dangerous this would be.

"You don't have to accompany me you know, me and the kid go way back as you know, with all this information we have I doubt he would want to kill me in the first meeting."

Neo pointed frantically at the upstairs office they had come from and Roman got the hint.

He sighed and brushed some dust from his shoulder from where it had kicked up as he slumped against the crate.

"I know its dangerous to tell him anything but as you can tell we don't have a choice. One side will definitely kill us and even if we follow her and do everything she asks, she still might kill us." He took a long drag on his cigar.

"And the other side will try to kill us for working with the White Fang who she is making us work with, the best we can do is give Cinder what she wants and see if we can pull the kid onto our side, dealing with Cinder comes later".

Neo bobbed her head a few times and grabbed Romans arm, in a flash they were back in his lounge and he collapsed onto his sofa with eyes closed.

Fuck how can this get worse.

/

Jaune sighed, turning off the water after a relaxing shower, moving over to the mirror to splash some cold water on his face he looked at himself.

He had to refrain from punching the mirror at that unsightly scar on his cheek, fucking White Fang, he would make them all pay.

Clenching and unclenching his fists a few times he let his breath return to a steady pace, after a few moments he got changed into a tank top and shorts, it didn't hide all his scars, but he honestly couldn't care.

His mind set to the future, the meeting with Roman, his first strike against the white fang.

How good it would feel to carve Crocea Mors through Adam Taurus.

He smiled sickly, yes that's sure to be a good day when he finds the bastard.

Swinging the door back open and entering the team room with his hair still wet he nodded behind him "Who's next?"

He saw Nora climb from her bed as he sat on his own, he saw Pyrrha glance at a few of the scars on his legs and arms, he glanced at them himself.

A few from Grimm teeth, a few from explosions and bullets, burns and cuts.

Quite the collection from his wartime days in Vacuo, more would surely add to his collection before he expired.

He lays back on his bed, feeling relaxed and released a content sigh.

At this very moment nothing was wrong, and that was something Jaune could get used too.

If only it would stay that way.

He grinned to himself, but that wasn't his way, he liked the chaos, it made him feel alive, the thick of battle, the rush of a life or death situation where a single mistake could take you out.

To test himself against his enemy and come out on top again and again.

That's what he lived for.

He closed his eyes and after a few minutes of conversation between Pyrrha and Ren the door opened again, this time Ren heading into the shower, Pyrrha and Nora talking while Ren showered.

Well at least they were talking to each other now, he wasn't the most sociable of people but even he could tell that when they had just come back it was beyond awkward.

Probably worse in RWBYs dorm though.

Not only dealing with trauma but with Weiss thinking she was robbed of not being leader.

He was sure that was a mess in there.

Once Ren had exited the shower they each went to lay in their separate beds.

He could tell sleep wouldn't come easy to them tonight, but with classes tomorrow they would have to cope.

He wasn't sure he would with a full night's sleep, he wasn't the most studious of people, that's wasn't to say he was stupid.

But he hadn't ever gone to school, he got schooled by his family and then taught philosophy by Roman, he doubted that counted as teaching though.

More like corrupting.

But he couldn't blame the man, it had helped him out in tough times.

With the rest of his team in bed he decided to stop planning and thinking.

Slowly drifting off to sleep knowing that tomorrow would be a very taxing day.

/

Vic sighed as he entered his office aboard the Atlas battleship, Lucy was out cold, asleep along with Amy Arc.

Vic had agreed to help her in the search for her wayward brother, and from the information on the documents there wasn't much else to go on.

He had to be in Vale somewhere.

He looked into Romans recent activity, two days ago he partook in a raid on an atlas shipment of dust with the White Fang.

Old enemies become friends?

"Hmm" he hummed as he scoured through some documents across his desk.

"If Jaune hates the White Fang that much, then he can't be staying with Roman, that would-be suicide for both of them…"

He hummed again as he read through a few more reports of Romans activities as the Butcher had gone missing months prior.

If he was in Vale, then he would need a place to stay…. Possibly free food, and a place he could train.

His eyes went wide, and he slapped his palm to his forehead with a growl, it's so simple.

Beacon.

Of course, it had to be Beacon, he can stay for free, move about freely outside of lessons, get fed for free and access to training facilities.

Storage for weapons and everything.

Quickly he pulled out his scroll and searched through his contacts before pausing once he found the headmasters number.

Would Lucy want him prying this much or should he report what he found to her?

Thinking more deeply his eyes narrowed, his last name is Arc, that's a famous name and many of the older generation know what happened to the family as well as the rumours around the young male Arc.

There is no way Ozpin wouldn't have known who he was or at least had some suspicion.

Which raises more questions, why didn't he contact Lucy or Atlas about his location, they once requested the help from Beacon in finding the young man, and now to have him enrolled?

Well that wasn't proven yet…

He searched up Beacon and Arc, within a few minutes he had found details on him.

Jaune Arc, leader of team Juniper (JNPR) Passed initiation with flying colours.

So, he had enrolled.

Heh good thing Vic worked for Atlas or getting this information would be troublesome.

Putting away his scroll away and lightly shaking his head he decided against making contact with Ozpin.

He would inform Lucy in the morning and he was sure she would bring it up in person when they visit Vale for the Vytal festival.

He strode out of the dim of his office, checking the clock to see it was the early hours of the morning, stifling a yawn he locked the door behind him and headed off to bed.

Leaving a note on his scroll to contact Lucy in the morning with regards to her brother.

The meeting with the elder Shnee hadn't gone well, they had branded the Vacuo Butcher a high interest target to be neutralised at all costs, it had taken all of Lucy and Vics' will power to give nothing away and to keep the information of his identity to themselves.

Winter was… a difficult woman to get along with, proud, strict, disciplined.

But like so many people he knew, she was very uncompromising, she stated the Butchers actions against the White Fang were of no concern to her or Atlas but his involvement in the past with Torchwick branded him as an enemy.

From what Vic had heard about the boy from Lucy and a small amount from Emerald he was likely to make contact with Torchwick once he was comfortable in Vale if that was indeed where he resides.

"This could put him against Atlas special forces around the time of the Vytal festival" he grimly thought.

He didn't want Lucy little brother clashing with the Shnee specialist, who knows how that could end, but knowing Lucy, she would step in to aid her family.

This would of course cause a massive problem for their entire division and could end up splitting the special operatives into an almost civil war

It was well known the two divisions hated each other as did their leaders.

One being an Arc and one being a Shnee after all.

He rubbed his tired eyes as he entered his sleeping residence.

With White Fang activity, Torchwick, the Vacuo Butcher and now joining the mess would be the Atlas operatives.

He shook his head, what a fucking mess.


	6. Chapter 6

A dull noise assaulted Jaunes ears, thumping against his skull as agony ripped through his body.

What kind of attack is this?

Something Jaune had never faced before and that was obvious, if not by his agonised facial expression, then by the slow painful groan which escaped his slightly parted lips.

Eyes dilated as his breath heaved, he couldn't see, he couldn't focus.

A dull ringing in his ears took over his thought process leaving him just a blank husk.

He gasped as another wave of nausea washed over him, the dull ringing become more and more painful and aggravating as a noise over took his senses, a male voice to be sure.

It seemed almost over enthusiastic and boastful as it caused suffering to him.

Gasping and glancing right he noticed a flash of yellow, his friend and comrade through his pain, Yang.

Her eyes void, her head slumped, looking lifeless amongst a sea of bodies already claimed by the damned sorcery.

His hands shook with grief.

No

Not her too!

Eyes scouring left he saw much of the same but with his own partner Pyrrha.

She had one hand under her chin propping it up as she stared blankly, all life had left her form as she stay still like a statue.

Closing his eyes with a groan and fighting on for a few more seconds his body began to give up as he too was being claimed by this power.

He was close, the light fading as his head drooped, all his battles, all his struggles, and this is how he is felled?

The bell rang signalling the end of Professor Ports lesson and with it came his salvation.

With his last words droning on the class started to shake themselves from the coma induced by his voice.

He was slowly rousing himself from the attack by Professor port, dangerous indeed his assessment of the man was accurate.

When an unholy noise caused him to jolt up

"GET UP YOU DOLTS!" Weiss screeched

Yang and Ruby jumped up almost knocking their desks over, Yang in a fighting stance and Ruby had reached behind her to grasp her weapon only to find air.

Jaune blinked stupidly at the heiress, how? How did she resist his power? What kind of goddess was she?

Nora groaned into her desk as Ren shook her lightly trying to get her to move to no avail.

Weiss face palmed as Pyrrha shook Jaune to get him to move.

Blake blatantly reading a book behind them, putting it down with a gentle slap of paper against her desk as she stood and stretched.

"Come on you dolts, it was only a lesson" Weiss glowered

"but it was soooo boooring" Exclaimed Ruby, slumping against her desk again "I thought Grimm studies was going to be interesting" she whined.

Well that was interesting, hearing how a teacher had supposedly choked a Ursa to death using his shoe lace...

"You see?!" Weiss screeched "This is why you aren't fit to be our leader!"

"W-wha where is this coming from Weiss?" Ruby gasped

Weiss growled "you should know where, I've trained my entire life to be a hunter! I don't want to be led by a child who treats this as a joke!"

Yangs eyes turned red and she stepped forward only to be stopped by Jaune with a hand on her arm, with his head still against the desk, blue eyes piercing into hers and a little shake of the head.

Yang relented but glared the girl down

Ruby looked down at her heels "I'm trying" She said softly

Truth be told team RWBYs arguing had started from when they had eaten breakfast together earlier in the day.

With Weiss sniping comments at Ruby and her leadership skills all morning, Yang stepping in to defend her team leader and sister with Blake trying to ignore the in fighting and sniping comments at Weiss, clearly, she isn't keen on the Shnee name but who is.

Blake sighed from her desk as Nora, Ren and Pyrrha desperately pretended they weren't witnessing this team spat.

Weiss scoffed and turned away, stomping out of the room, by the looks of it in the direction of the portly professor.

Jaune let go of Yang as she violently yanked her arm away from his, shooting him a glare and hugged her little sister.

"What is her problem" She growled.

Blake sighed and stood with her team while Pyrrha dragged Jaune to his feet

"It's a Shnee thing" Blake sighed.

Yang and Ruby shared a look and Jaune shook his head with a sigh.

Yup that team was a mess.

With sullen looks on the face of team RWBY and concerned ones on the face of NPR they made their way to the next lesson.

History with Doctor Oobleck, could be interesting.

/

Pyrrha closed her eyes for a few moments as she saw Weiss moving back over to re-join her team.

Please don't be another argument, she still had a headache from the last.

Looking at her own team she saw clear frustration on the face of the normally stoic Ren and that was understandable, teams were supposed to work together and in the role of a hunter or huntress, teamwork was essential for survival.

You needed to be able to trust those on your team to have your back, much like Ren and Nora did with each other.

In the small time she had known them she often saw them watch each other's back both in combat and for moral support.

It brought a small smile to Pyrrhas face, she wished she had something like that.

Her eyes strayed to her partner.

His eyes looking dull and his expression bored, walking slowly behind the group with a yawn and typing into his scroll.

He certainly didn't seem to care about team RWBYs internal issues or be paying much attention to what was going on.

He wasn't what she wanted in a partner, that was sure.

She wanted to find someone who didn't care about fame or fortune, which in her partners case was true, he certainly didn't care who she was nor the fame that came with it.

But he just seemed always distant, she was looking for someone kind, sweet, caring, someone who had drive and a good heart, willing to do good.

With her partner she wasn't sure if he had any of those things.

He was dangerous in combat, that much she knew, more dangerous than she would have thought possible for a supposed hunter in training.

Adding that to his reaction to death and how brutal and merciless his fighting style is she found it hard to trust him.

Maybe that would change, maybe not, only time would tell.

She shook her head to rid her of the thought as they made it to Doctor Ooblecks lesson, lining up with the other students and awaiting the start of the lesson.

Her eyes strayed to their sister team, noticing how quiet Weiss was, shouldn't she still be starting arguments?

Maybe Professor Port knocked some sense into her, well she hoped he did anyway.

A flash of green passed her eyes causing them to widen as the door to the classroom literally burst open in a flash of green and a gust of air.

The students stood frozen for a few seconds as they watched the suddenly open door.

"What was that?" Blake asked, eyes wide.

"No idea partner, I guess that means we should go in?" Yang made her way towards the door only for Nora to bounce past her and into the classroom with Ren dragged in tow.

Pyrrha shook her head amused at the scene and motioned for Jaune to follow her.

She strode into the classroom with Jaune and team RWBY in tow to see a very peculiar looking man.

The tall green raggedy looking man which stood alongside the other teachers just before initiation started.

His tie slightly undone along with his top button, he stood over his desk filling a mug with coffee and taking a very quick sip before almost appearing in front of the two teams.

"Don't just stand there all-day students! Find a seat and be ready for the lesson, come on come on learning waits for no one!" It was rather hard to understand what he said as it was spoken in less than a second but Pyrrha thought she got the gist of it.

Heading over to a spare seat near the middle of the classroom she sat down ready for what was bound to be an… interesting lesson, but from what she had seen of the teachers so far, she doubted it would be interesting due to subject material.

Looking around she realised she had lost her partner, scanning the room she saw that Doctor Oobleck had separated all members of the teams and spread them around the classroom.

Blake was placed next to herself who nodded as she sat down, Pyrrha nodded back politely and kept scanning the room.

Her eyes caught a flash of yellow and noticed Yang sat next to some boy with a ludicrous haircut who seemed to be attempting to flirt with her, to no avail of course at the girl looked frustrated with her seating plan already.

She spotted Nora down at the front next to a Faunus with long rabbit ears, Nora being Nora trying to break the ice and talk with the clearly timid girl.

Huh that might work out well for both of them.

She spied Ruby and Weiss sat next to each other and cringed.

That was going to be a handful.

Ren was seated a few seats down from Jaune who seemed to be sat next to a large teen who had his feet on the desk.

The teen seemed to be talking to Jaune rather aggressively or making aggressive movements for him to completely ignore, yeah that seemed about right.

She closed her eyes and let out a little chuckle as the lesson began.

30 minutes passed and even she was struggling to keep up, writing frantically in her book as much as she could about the Faunus Human wars, but the teacher was so frantic that it was difficult to keep up.

He dashed around the classroom, only stopping to sip his coffee before dashing off again to another location with a flurry of words and another sip of his coffee.

How wasn't this man suffering multiple heart attacks?!

He seemed to disappear and reappear in different locations, even her trained eyes couldn't follow his rapid and frankly random movements.

"Mr Arc!" Doctor Ooblecks voice boomed over the frantic scrabbling of pens as she turned her head to locate the professor stood in front of her partner with a stern expression and arms crossed.

Jaune sat back, looking up at him with his hands on the table, no pen or book open.

"Yes?"

She almost facepalmed, at least show respect to your teachers.

The Doctors eye twitched a bit "That's Yes Doctor Oobleck young man, why haven't you been taking notes on what is perhaps the most important lesson you will learn?" He huffed at the student.

"After all young man, if one doesn't learn from history"

He took a sip of his coffee and was about to continue when Jaune spoke up

"Then we are bound to repeat it"

The teacher didn't look impressed and took another sip of his coffee.

"I'm going to assume that you already know the history of General Lagune?"

Jaune nodded "Shoot"

"Very well Mr Arc, can you tell me what the major turning point of the Faunus wars was?"

Jaune seemed to roll his eyes making the teacher stamp his foot impatiently

"Fort Castle"

"Very good Mr Arc, can you tell me the victor of said battle and why?"

He nodded up at the teacher "The Faunus claimed victor due to an oversight by General Lagune regarding the night vision of the Faunus"

The teacher nodded impressed at her partner which caused her to give a sigh of relief, okay so at least he didn't get it wrong, still has attitude problems though.

"Very well Mr Arc it seems you know this subject, I would however like you to pay attention as there can be some points which you are not so knowledgeable about that I am likely to bring up".

Jaune nodded "As you wish Doctor"

A smacking sound was heard as the large teen next to her partner slammed an open palm into his back, a little to hard to have been friendly.

Jaune to his credit didn't even react, it was like he didn't even feel it, much to the annoyance of the larger teen.

"Never took you for a Faunus lover Arc" The guy spat.

The present teacher raised an eyebrow dangerously at the larger teen who seemed to not notice, grinning challengingly at her partner.

Jaune visibly stilled "I'm not" He bristled

The other teen smirked, finally getting a reaction "Oh? Sounded like you were sucking those filthy animals off just now, what are you a white fang sympathiser?"

At the mention of the White fang, Jaune stood, his tempter clearly getting the better of him in that moment

"Don't mention their fucking name!" It looked the situation would spill over into violence until the teacher slammed an open palm down on the desk in front of the other teen.

"Mr Winchester and Mr Arc! I will not condone this sort of behaviour in my classroom especially not on the first day!"

Cardin Winchester shrugged at the teacher with a cocky smirk.

Her partner didn't even acknowledge him, looking down at Cardin with an impassive stare, eyes cold and body turned to one side, he stood still, a little too still like he could explode into action at any moment.

The teacher noticed this and leaned more into Jaunes view.

"Mr Arc please take a seat by your partner" He said pointing to the spare seat next to Pyrrha to which Jaune snarled once at the teacher and stormed to his new seat.

"Mr Arc and Mr Winchester, both of you will see me after class".

Cardin balked at the idea

"Hey what did I do? Not my fault Arc freaked out about those animals"

A few members of the class were now glaring at Cardins referral to Faunus being animals, and a few were casting some disapproving gestures to her partner who now sat next to her for reacting so negatively to the Faunus.

"If I need to explain to you why referring to the Faunus as animals is unacceptable then perhaps you are already unworthy of being a huntsman"

Cardins eyes went wide and he stayed silent, his lips set in a thin line as the teacher strode to the front of the class and refilled his mug of coffee.

Pyrrha looked right to see Blake sending Cardin a glare and she gave the girl a gentle pat on the shoulder.

Blake looked at her and took a deep breath before nodding as Pyrrha removed her hand.

She leaned over to her partner who sat too still, his eyes directed at Cardin, cold and unfeeling.

"You okay?"

"Fine" His answer was clipped before he finally turned his head to look at her.

His eyes locked with hers and she found herself shrinking at the emptiness of his blue orbs, like the depths of the ocean, deep blue that gave nothing away but could take everything without changing.

It worried her.

"Combat is next with Miss Goodwich correct?" He spoke in a neutral tone.

She nodded in respond to which he turned his eyes back to Cardin "Good" he growled.

She wanted to reach out to him and ask what was wrong, but from the extreme reaction to the mention of the White Fang, coupled with all the scars she had seen on his arms and legs from last night.

She decided it was something he would tell when he was ready, it did no good to pry into others business.

She sighed and went back to scribbling details down in her notepad as the lesson ended with the ringing of the bell.

/

He was angry, that much he knew.

His hands balled under the table as he eyes his target, Cardin.

How he could ignore the childlike way the boy tried to get a rise out of him easily.

But not with the mention of the White Fang.

His hatred burned hotter than Remnants core for the scum which ruined his life, took his family apart and turned him into this monster.

A monster which was currently thinking of ways to eviscerate a fellow student.

Albeit a racist student who wouldn't make a good hunter, but did that mean he deserved to die?

Jaune wasn't sure but he certainly wanted to be the one to kick his body into a shallow unmarked grave.

One day, one day he would.

Closing his eyes with a growl he tried to calm himself, next was combat, and he was itching for a fight.

Heck maybe he would ask for Cardin, or the fool would be stupid enough to ask for him.

He smirked sickly, that would do nicely.

The ringing of the bell caused a long breath to escape his burning lungs, his body felt hot, like the fire which destroyed his home, his mind was dull, he could feel too much and yet feel nothing.

He stayed sat as Pyrrha offered to wait for him only for him to shake his head, there was no point.

Once the class had exited it left himself, Cardin and the Doctor alone.

"Mr Winchester, blatant racism will not be accepted in this academy and especially not in my classroom" he picked out a piece of paper and examined it for a few seconds before frowning "Your work is also subpar and will need to be improved, do not make me force extra history lessons upon you Mr Winchester Id expect there are other things you would wish to be doing with your time."

The student spat but didn't say anything which caused the older man to sigh and dismiss him with the wave of a hand.

The teen stood cockily and sauntered out of the classroom.

Once he was gone the teacher turned back to Jaune.

"Mr Arc, while Mr Winchester was out of line with his comments I cant help but be concerned at what garnered such a reaction from you"

Silence was his answer causing a longer sigh to escape the older man.

"I understand that those coming to Beacon are from all sorts of backgrounds, but should you ever need to talk about something, the faculty here are always willing to listen."

"What are you implying?" Jaune questioned.

"That you have some sort of history with the White Fang of course, you must do to garner such a reaction".

Jaune cursed his temper and sighed at the older man.

"There is nothing I wish to talk about sir"

He waved Jaune away and drank from his coffee as Jaune rose and exited the room.

He marched down the corridors at a fast pace and whipped his scroll from his jacket pocket.

" _Soon Roman, don't come looking, I'll find you"_

He typed and sent the message hurriedly as he headed into the locker room, a few other students in tow.

Opening his locker and equipping his armour and slipping Crocea Mors into its sheath at his hip he slammed the locker shut, heading into the combat arena as one of the first as his team and sister team seemed to be taking their time.

The witch stood in the middle of the ring, her eyes falling upon him the second he entered, but he cared not.

Striding into the stands he took a seat upon one of the benches, with one hand gripping the hilt of Crocea Mors and the other balled into a fist which rested upon his knee.

He waited for the lesson to start.

It took only a few more minutes for the students to funnel in, team RWBY and NPR finding him quickly and taking the seats around him, Yang on one side and Nora on his other.

He noticed a concerned look from both, but he ignored It, sitting in silence as the teams talked about how this lesson would be the best yet.

He grinned a little, yes, yes it would be, a good stress relief.

After a few moments the witch stepped forward with riding crop in hand. What a stupid weapon.

"Welcome to combat training, I will be your teacher, Miss Goodwitch and in this lesson, we shall practice your combat abilities in one on one duels against each other. As I'm sure you all know, Grimm isn't the only opponent you will face in the field. Rogue huntsmen or huntresses who have lost their way, criminals and terrorist groups also make up a large part of what a trained huntsman or huntress will face. Combat will begin upon my signal and will end when one combatant's aura enters the red. Any attempt to continue combat after a combatant has entered the red will be met with swift punishment and perhaps even expulsion. Huntsmen and huntresses must be in complete control of themselves at all times."

There were a few murmurs in the crowd, but she silenced them by raising a hand.

"For our first match do we have any volunteers?"

A few hands went up, none of them were Jaunes.

Shit, complete control wasn't his thing at all, better to cool off he thought as he took deep breaths.

Miss Goodwitch picked out two volunteers from the students as the made their way to the ring to the cheers of their teams.

Weiss Shnee and Sky lark entered the arena and drew their weapons.

Jaune leaned forward a bit to watch, this should be interesting.

"Begin!" Miss Goodwitch called slashing her hand downwards as Weiss summoned a glyph below her.

Sky charged across the arena with halberd in hands held diagonally across his body.

Weiss finished her glyph summon before Sky was even half way across the arena and dashed at unnatural speed towards him with a flurry of rapier jabs, most of which were blocked by Sky as he back pedalled trying to use his reach advantage, Weiss dashed again into his guard with a fast jab.

This one finding its mark as it stabbed into his aura around his shoulder as she jumped back out of the range from a horizontal slash from Sky's halberd.

Her glyphs formed into the floor again as she seemed to dash through him, striking once as she bounced from another glyph in mid air to shoot back towards him, repeating the process 6 times each scoring a solid strike as the speed proved too much for her opponent.

Weiss came out of the move with her opponents' aura in the yellow. As sky dashed in for another flurry of blows to be exchanged.

Sky was outclassed, Jaune could see that easily.

However, Jaunes eyes widened as Sky grabbed hold of Weiss arm, holding the halberd with only one hand as he slashed it into her rapier with a shower of sparks.

Using his superior strength over the small girl he pulled her off balance towards him to slam a boot directly into her face, the impact knocking her onto her back with a large hit to her aura as she flipped back onto her feet with a snarl.

Jaune smirked a little, a lesson he had learned himself, the only safe enemy is a dead one, one mistake in combat can cost you your life. At least she took the blow on her aura though, or she'd have got her nose broke.

Sky dashed towards her, spinning his halberd as he brought it down in a devastating slash towards her head causing her to flip backwards to avoid being cut in half.

The halberd cut into the arena floor, cracking the tiles and kicking up debris as he spun with a telegraphed sideways cut aimed at her mid-section.

Weiss went to block before seeing the strength behind it and literally sliding along the tiles beneath the swing, well inside his guard she thrust upwards with all her strength, the tip of her rapier making direct contact with his neck, his aura blocking the blow which would have skewered him as he fell onto his back.

His aura entered the red as Miss Goodwitch called for the fight to end.

"A decent fight to start off with" She turned to Weiss who panted a little, her aura in the yellow "Miss Shnee while your attack was well executed to start with your over reliance on your weapon and semblance caused the opening which Mr Lark took advantage of, you need to work on varying your attack patterns".

Weiss nodded respectfully and hopped down from the stage as the teacher explained to Sky Lark where he had gone wrong.

Jaune found himself feeling calm after watching the fight, his earlier rage had waned and now he looked forward to testing his mettle against varying opponents. It was after all one of the reasons he chose to come to Beacon, for the combat practice.

The next fight was between Yang and some student which he didn't recognise, she was also a melee fighter and deployed gauntlets similar to Yangs.

But after what he had seen of her fighting technique in the Emerald forest he knew Yang would come out on top.

A few minutes later and a crushing defeat for her opponent proved him correct, she was quite the monster in combat.

Pyrrhas fight she destroyed her opposition thoroughly, as was probably expected by the teacher and even her opponent who had looked defeated before the fight had even began.

Pathetic, taking fame at face value without testing it yourself.

As the hour wore on and most of the class had fought was it finally his turn.

"Mr Arc and Mr Winchester, to the stage please"

His friends froze on their bench and it was Yang who spoke up "I'm not sure that's a good idea teach"

Miss Goodwitch pushed her glasses up to her nose "Its miss Goodwitch not teach miss Xiao Long" the older woman growled causing the girl in question freeze "If you are referring to the incident in History earlier today miss Xiao Long then I am well aware."

Her gaze turned to the two students who now stood before her "Sometimes its best to work out your differences in combat, the same rules apply, if I see either of you attempt to attack when the other is in the red I will be in charge of your punishment personally"

Her eyes flashed dangerously, and Cardin nodded, sparing a cocky smirk for Jaune who had already taken his position the other end of the ring.

Team Rwby and Juniper watched on anxiously as the seconds ticked by with tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"Begin!" Miss Goodwitch called.

Cardin raised his mace and charged, crossing the distance between them within a few seconds to smash his mace into Jaune and pulverise him, only for the mace to smash into the arena floor as Jaune wasn't there, his location now shrouded by the dust and debris the impact had kicked up.

Jaune crouched, without drawing a weapon and threw a handful of the debris straight into Cardin's eyes.

Cardin screamed as his sight was blinded, staggering back as Jaune emerged from the dust cloud caused by his opponents' mace.

He stalked forward and drew Crocea Mors as Cardin swiped his mace towards the sound only to hit air as Jaune delivered a devastating slash to the weakness in Cardin's armour around his knee, the blade slashed his aura down as Cardin fell onto one knee.

Jaune grasped Cardin by his hair, slamming his knee into his jaw again and again with his standing leg pinning Cardins arm which wielded his mace to the floor.

The impacts made his head swim before he regained his composure and swung his other fist hard.

Jaune let go of Cardins head to slap the blow away and step back.

He would allow his opponent a little recovery time, after all this wasn't even fun yet.

"C-coward" Snarled Cardin, "F-fucking coward" as he stood, wiping blood from his lip, his eyes red from the damage Jaune had inflicted with the dirty move.

Jaune simply tilted his head to one side, smiling at the teen.

"temper temper" He teased as Cardin roared, charging again and opening his attack by snapping a kick at Jaunes knee, who in return stepped back making the kick connect with air as he swung downwards with his mace.

This time it was met with Crocea Mors in a shower of sparks and the satisfying sound of steel on steel.

Jaune danced back as Cardin stalked him, each swing being blocked by Crocea Mors or deflected in another direction, all the while Jaune grinned like a madman.

A devastating blow by Cardin was dodged as Jaune stepped to the side before dashing into his guard and slamming the hilt of Crocea Mors into Cardins' unprotected Jaw, all of his force behind the blow it connected with a sickening crack as Cardins' eyes went wide, dropping his mace he fell onto his back with a mighty crash, unconscious.

Silence overtook the arena, he had beaten Cardin without taking a single hit.

Miss Goodwitch coughed to get their attention "The victor is Jaune Arc, team CRDL please take your leader to the infirmary, as for you Mr Arc do you know what advice I have for you?"

He shook his head causing her to sigh

"Watch your temper, against a more dangerous opponent your taunting and refusing to end the fight when you had the chance could have cost you dearly"

He nodded in understanding, that was fair.

The bell rang to signal the end of the lesson as Miss Goodwitch called for the end of class and the day as the first years mainly had to focus on their combat abilities, it would do no good to bog them down completely in theory.

Nodding to the teacher he joined his team who had headed to the door to go get some lunch.

His mood felt light as he re-joined them.

/

As they sat for lunch, both teams together, eating as they had that morning, but the air felt lighter.

With Weiss still being more silent and not trying to pick a fight with her little sister, and with Jaune no longer on the warpath after his crushing victory against Cardin, the teams could eat together without tension.

Looked like Weiss needed an ass kicking by an authority figure and Jaune needed some stress relief, speaking of stress relief…

"Hey lady killer, if you needed stress relief you could have come to me, I can think of some things we could do to take care of that" Yang winked at him and Weiss almost choked on her fork.

Jaune tilted his head to one side in that adorable way he does and smiled "Very considerate of you Yang, if you had offered earlier we could have skipped combat all together"

"There is still time" She smirked and turned to her team "You guys mind clearing out for an hour or two?" They just gave her deadpan stares.

Jaunes team did the same to him and he chuckled "I think we are the embarrassments of our team Yang"

She smirked at him and sighed dramatically "Woe is me"

Before she turned to her Icy team mate "So ice queen, want to tell us how Port removed that stick from your ass?"

Widened eyes stared at her from NPR and her own team only to be interrupted by the snorting laughter from Jaune and the glowering by Weiss.

"That's none of your business, I just decided to give this a try provided Ruby puts in the effort I expect of a leader." She crossed her arms and refused to look at them.

Ruby visibly vibrated in her seat causing Yang to chuckle a little "R-really?! I promise I won't let you down Weiss!"

Even Blake nodded to show her support.

"So, is our sister team going to be okay now?" Nora bounced

Ruby scoffed "It was always okay, better than okay, amazing in fact!"

Ren spoke up "Better than ours?"

Ruby grinned "Well I don't mean to brag buuuut"

"Ill have to agree with you Ruby, if I need lessons on how to take a boot to the face your team is the first I'll talk too, truly masters" Jaune nodded sagely

Weiss glowered and blushes "I-I was caught off guard okay"

"Thought your opponent was going to stand still?" Jaune teased

She growled "If I had Myrtenaster on me id show you just which one of us is better"

Jaune smirked "Sure you could handle the heat princess?"

She scoffed "Easily, at least I don't use cheap tactics and throw gravel in my opponent's eye"

He grinned "Maybe Sky did that to you, why you didn't see his boot coming"

Yang let out a little chuckle and Ruby seemed a lot happier now that it was just friendly banter.

Her eyes met Pyrrhas across the table and they smiled at one another as Jaune and Weiss continued to argue and insult each other, yeah things were looking better now.

Her eyes sought out Nora who was talking with Blake excitedly, the quiet girl mostly not appreciating it but putting up with her bubbly attitude.

Who knows, maybe Blake just needs to break out of her shell.

After lunch the two teams went out for some fitness training, mainly bonding she realised as it was her sister who suggested it, hoping to get to know Weiss and Blake better as well as their sister team Juniper.

Surprisingly her sister got on fabulously well with Jaune and unsurprisingly she got along well with Nora.

Yang sat on one of the benches outside watching the teams train, having already completed her training of the day to keep her reflexes sharp and her body in shape, there was no reason to push it after all combat training was every day of the week.

Her eyes sought out her little sister who was running laps with Jaune and Blake around the campus, the three of them seemed to be talking which was a good sign especially with Blake getting involved. She had seemed to take a wide birth from Jaune since the start but at least she was warming up to him now.

Really all Yang wanted was for the two teams to get along.

Truth be told she feared the team splitting and the divide leaving just her and her sister alone, it brought a smile to her face that everything was working out alright.

She leaned back and fanned herself a bit, damn it was hot though.

Pyrrha came to sit by her once she was done with her training and the two of them just enjoyed the moment of peace.

As afternoon turned towards night they each retired to their dorms with Weiss having the idea of getting ahead with their homework, of course she would.

As the teams departed to their dorms It was Jaune who stood in Junipers doorway with a thoughtful look on his face, before shaking his head and entering, the door closing behind him.

Yang closed team RWBYs door to find Blake on her bed reading, nothing out of the ordinary there.

With Weiss helping Ruby with her homework, the scene brought a smile to her face as she flopped down on her bed, this day wasn't so bad after all.


	7. Chapter 7

Jaune sat on the bullhead heading into Vale, his backpack full of weapons and a change of clothes, as hunters carrying weapons was a normal sight it allowed Jaune to avoid suspicion from authorities.

Heh it sure pays to be a student of Beacon.

Making up an excuse to his team had been easy enough, tell them he was going out with some old friends to party. A simple and reliable alibi.

Unfortunately, he knew he couldn't use that excuse for Yang had been excited about clubbing all week and he suspected she would want to tag along with him.

Instead he had told his team that he was out to meet with his half-brother, of course he didn't have one but since no one knew of his background he figured he could get away with it.

As such he had departed from the academy at the end of the day, taking Crocea Mors much to the worried looks of his team.

Quick thinking had come in handy as he explained it was for sparing with his half-brother.

After landing he had trudged through the streets, it was around 6pm so there were still a lot of people around, he tried to dodge the crowds as he marched towards one of the rougher ends of the city, where one of the biggest clubs lay.

He pushed through the line to get into the club much to the annoyance of the other party goers, but he didn't care, he was here for business not leisure.

His attire was set for clubbing, mainly white and grey but the bag he carried was a cause of concern for the bouncers who stopped him.

"Hold on sir, I'm going to have to ask you to head to the back of the line" much to the cheers of the crowd.

Jaune stopped in front of the burly man and grinned.

"I'm pretty sure you will lose your job if you try, I'm here to see Junior, and trust me, he would want you to let me in"

The bouncer frowned and opened the door, heading inside while the other two eyes Jaune warily.

After a few seconds the bouncer came back out and grumbled something at Jaune, ushering him inside to the sound of blaring music and strobe lighting.

His eyes scanned the room quickly and found Junior looking nervously in his direction from behind the bar.

Jaune didn't head over, instead nodding to the staff only door and heading towards it.

Junior caught him up quickly and the bouncer in front stood aside allowing Jaune and Junior entry.

Once inside Jaune turned to him "Where is a spare room I can dump this stuff?" he gestured to his bag.

Junior met his cold eyes for a few seconds before striding ahead

"I've got a place you can store it, just try not to be seen coming back here dressed like _him_ , I don't need that kind of publicity if you get me."

"No promises but ill try" Jaune consented as they pushed into a small bare room.

It had a small window looking out into the Vale sky as it started to get dark, one bed and a small bedside table plus a wardrobe which was the only furniture adorning the small space.

It was an en suite though, so that was a bonus.

Setting down his bag he unzipped it to pull out black clothing, laying it on the bed as Junior spoke quietly into an earpiece.

Jaune unzipped and pulled down his grey trousers to pull up his black padded combats, they wouldn't offer much protection, but it was good enough.

Sliding his jacket off and laying it on the bed he pulled his shirt off and placed it next to the rest of his clothes before freezing as a hand pressed against his hard back.

He turned his head to see red and white, but not the red and white he knew from beacon.

Junior stood behind a pair of twins who had taken the opportunity to feel up his back, well that's a bit concerning.

Red turned to Junior with a cat like smirk "Thought you said you needed protection?"

White grinned at him rubbing Jaunes strong back gently and running her fingers down some of his scars "I hope he has brought some"

The sisters giggled causing Jaune to sigh.

How many girls did he know like this?

Yang, Neo and now these two ugh

He stepped forward out of their grip and pulled on his black shirt before turning to face Junior

"Protection?"

He tugged nervously at his collar "Just a precaution Jaune, hope you wont hold that against me, a man has to be careful"

Jaune shrugged and pulled his brown vest on along with his cloves, fixing his hood so he could easily pull it up when needed and pulling weapons out of his bag.

The twins backed slightly and stood in front of Junior who sighed.

"Don't mean to be rude Jaune, but what do you need?"

Jaune started pushing knives into the leather straps which adorned his vest "Information on Roman"

Junior froze and coughed "Fuck kid, shouldn't you know that?"

Jaune shook his head as he hefted a pistol and slid it into its holster at his hip.

"Haven't been in contact since Vacuo, have any idea?" Jaune asked distractedly as he attached Crocea Mors to his hip with its sheath.

"All I know Jaune is that Roman keeps changing location, I can't tell you anymore because I don't know anymore, he has been changing safe houses to stop the police I believe"

Jaune nodded his head "Very well, if you can't help me with that then maybe you can offer some other assistance?"

Juniors eyes narrowed a bit as the twins stayed on guard.

"What else could you want?"

"One of your men, just someone to cut some power cables" he stated simply.

Junior hummed but Jaune knew he would accept, from what he had heard Junior was still paying off damages from pissing off the wrong person.

Whatever damages they caused he knew Jaune could cause 20 times the amount.

"Fine, just don't get him killed."

They exchanged scroll numbers and Junior spoke to someone on his earpiece again before nodding.

"Alright Jaune, your man will wait for your call tonight, just give him location and specifics and he will do the rest"

Jaune nodded without a word and pushed past him, out the back door and into the night.

Junior sighed and headed back inside with the twins, to the bar to fetch himself a drink.

"It's gunna be a long night" he realized

/

Finding and using Junior had been no problem for him as he knew it wouldn't have been

Junior for all his tricks and wordplay told no lie when explaining to Jaune that Roman had been using various safe houses for fear of reprisal from the authorities.

That only left him one option, the only person Roman kept around and he trusted

Neo.

Roman wasn't predictable and lately his movements had become even harder to track and frankly random.

His location seemed to change by the day or by the hour, one minute he was spotted in the higher-class areas of Vale, the next in the higher crime areas with an army of thugs.

To the authorities it seemed impossible, and it would be, were it not for his little assassin Neo.

Jaune knew of her semblance as he had met the colourful woman a few times before in Vacuo.

He also knew of her crippling weakness, a smile had spread across his features as he headed to where he suspected she would be.

As stupid as it sounds, an ice-cream shop.

Opening the door with a little bell jingle he had spotted his target immediately.

Sat at the far end of the shop with a bowl of Neapolitan ice-cream, digging her spoon in before taking a euphoric taste of her sweet treat.

The shop opener, an old looking man with grey hair had tottered behind the counter before taking one look at Jaune and walked back through the door into the backroom.

Jaune smiled, good, no need for a casualty.

Neo had spotted him as he strode towards her, her eyes narrowing as he took the seat opposite her and placed his hands on the table.

"I'm sure you know why I'm here" He said

She looked away slightly and sighed silently, taking another spoonful of her delicious treat which Jaune could only reason was an addiction.

Jaune waited patiently, knowing not to rush the woman, she was dangerous at the best of times, but if you got in the way of her and ice-cream.

She was a monster.

She finally nodded and went to stand but for Jaune raising a hand with a small smile

"Please, finish your treat"

Her eyes narrowed immediately at his smile as she sat down with a huff and took another spoonful.

She was trying to be relaxed, he could tell, but her muscles were tense, and she was ready to bolt, he could see in her eyes.

She wasn't scared, but she was very wary, the situation felt very tense.

He needed her to stay for now though, until Juniors man was ready.

Jaune sat in silence, watching the assassin as she finished her meal and went to grab his arm which he quickly caught much to the thinning of her lips and the narrowing of her eyes further.

"We walk" he said simply

He didn't want her to drop him off in the middle of the Emerald forest and make all of his planning worth nothing, the cogs were turning and the plan in motion, he wouldn't take any risks yet.

She rolled her eyes at him and snatched her hand back before her eyes switched colour and she flashed him a beautiful smile before sauntering with a swing of her hips to the door.

He groaned silently and followed her as she made sure to sway her hips as she walked for him.

Trying to distract him? Or just being Neo?

He could never tell with her, but that's what you get for working with crazy people.

They had walked for around 20 minutes, with Jaune following and Neo occasionally moving back to him to bump her hips against his and cast a wink his way.

Still trying for a distraction, he could tell.

Ignoring it with his stoic expression they headed into what looked like a warehouse district, although by the fact that Neo had grabbed his hand suddenly and teleported them over the gate, he imagined that no one was supposed to be here.

Clever he thought as he stumbled but regained his balance without falling flat on his face to which Neo giggled at.

He groaned and cast her a sharp glare as she strode past him, leading the way.

Her hips still swinging, and he would have to remind himself to pay attention to the situation and not play her game.

He may have cast a few glances which she had seen as he could tell by the smirk and the wink she gave him as she turned her head.

He closed his eyes for a brief moment and opened them again as he followed, trying to calm himself.

He may be a trained killer, but he couldn't deny she was an attractive woman and she knew that too, why she was trying to have an effect on him.

As they rounded near a body of water and passed three similar looking warehouses she finally stopped in front of one.

It looked similar to the rest, just a large metallic building with a steel door, bolted and embedded in the side of it.

She unlocked the metallic door by whipping a key from her trousers which hung to her hips and led him inside.

Eyes scanning around he saw cobwebs and dust covering the dilapidated machinery, tall scaffolding reaching up to the glass ceiling but some of it had collapsed into piles of rubble and there was certainly a draft.

She led him towards the small stone building in the centre and entered with him in tow.

His eyes snapped left and then right, spotting a large desk, a sofa, a cabinet which looked to be full of alcohol, a coffee table and a comfortable looking sofa which Neo collapsed upon, glancing at him cutely with her head turned to the side.

He closed the door behind him and headed over to Romans cabinet, pulling out three glasses and what looked like his finest bourbon, good, that will get on his nerves.

The thought made him smile a bit as he sat behind his desk and placed the glasses in front of him.

Neo sat up and eyed him warily as he uncapped the bourbon and placed behind the glasses.

He drew Crocea Mors with a rasp of steel causing Neo to reach for her own weapon before he placed it as the side of the desk.

He smiled coyly at her, finding amusement in her being on the backfoot now.

With his form hidden behind the desk Neo couldn't see him type a message into his scroll and sent it to Juniors man whom the information merchant had promised the help of.

It was a simple message, just his location.

" _Docks, fourth warehouse from the left at the waterfront, blackout all but the office"_

He waited in silence, his hard eyes staring into Neos as she met his gaze with as much intensity, smiling to break the stalemate he pulled out his hip flask, uncapping it and taking a swig before recapping and placing It back in his pocket.

What he waited for payed off as everything but the office they sat in went black, the outer warehouse in complete darkness.

Neos eyes widened as she glanced out the window to see what had been done, her lips twisting into a snarl.

Jaune simply grinned "Teleport away and you won't see me coming next time"

Neo froze, her eyes narrowing dangerously at him, but he didn't care, they were evenly matched, and he knew like Roman, that an even fight wasn't one they would take.

His eyes zeroed in on her movement, her hands under the coffee table as she was leaned forward, looking at him, he growled and slammed his hands into the desk almost making it crack.

Neos instincts were on edge since their first meeting causing her to twitch violently and reach for her weapon, her twitch her launched her scroll into the air.

Only for a knife to imbed it to the wall behind her.

She froze with a hand on her thin blade, seeing Jaune now stood with his hand out having thrown the blade from one of the holders across his chest.

Her eyes were wide as they twitched a few times fast

"No need to tell him anything Neo, no need to worry your pretty little head, he likes surprised anyway"

He grinned cockily as she gripped her blade and sat down with it in her hand.

It only took a few more minutes until he heard the door click open to the warehouse.

He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and when he opened them it wasn't as Jaune, but as the Butcher of Vacuo.

/

The weekend came around faster than Roman would have liked, three days ago he received that message from Jaune "I will find you", ugh could the kid be any creepier.

Yet he didn't doubt that when Jaune decided to pay him a little visit, that the kid would just appear in his office, probably drink all his brandy too.

He grumbled at the thought, first Cinder and then probably Jaune?

That stuff isn't cheap you know, not that anyone appreciates that, damn freeloaders.

He rounded a familiar corner in one of the shady parts of town, walking down the alley and coming to a stop at an iron clad door, pulling out a key he quickly unlocked it and stepped inside into the relative warmth, the door closing behind him with a clang as he relocked it from the inside.

Pocketing the key and taking a few strides, he suddenly stopped.

Something is wrong, something is very wrong.

He scanned left and right, the warehouse was in darkness, no fabulously stylish goons to cower before their boss.

No overly cocky youngsters begging to try their luck in a new heist to earn him some money, and probably get themselves killed in the process but that's not his problem.

Nothing, it was in complete silence.

His pristine black shoes making echoes as he strode purposely towards the only light in his gloomy warehouse, his office.

The light was on, but the blinds shut, the dim light illuminating the darkness and shining as if a beacon for him.

He thrust his hand into his pocket and scrambled for a cigar, pulling it out with a shaking hand and quickly lighting it.

Taking a few quick and long drags before exhaling the smoke into the gloom of what should be a safe house.

He knew what was to come, he had seen these tactics before.

With the cigar in his mouth he walked carefully and as quietly as he could, feeling like he was prey being hunted in the darkness.

After a tense few moments he arrived at the source of light, his office, the blinds blocking his view of the inside and he wasn't going to move by the window and peak in.

For starters if it was what he feared, and he had discovered information, Roman could expect a bullet through his skull from inside.

Poking your head out in hostile territory wasn't smart.

And should it be the long-awaited meeting, then he couldn't appear fearful or scheming, he had to be relaxed.

Taking another long drag on his cigar and a few deep breaths he moved his hand to the door handle, turning it with a gentle click before flinging it open with force giving him full view of his office.

Neo sat on the couch, looking stiff, her back to him and her head pointed forward facing his desk.

Her scroll imbedded in the wall with a knife through it, buried up to the hilt just above her head.

His eyes scanned upwards to meet joined hands which rested on his mahogany desk, to the left of his hands his precious bourbon which had been poured into three glasses which lay on his desk.

His eyes trailed to meet the cold blue stare of the Vacuo Butcher, and those eyes didn't look friendly, nor did that accursed blade which lay at the side of his desk, in full view and within reach.

A show of power clearly.

Roman didn't say anything for a few moments, admiring the kid he had trained, it had been quite a while since he had seen the kid and he hadn't changed much.

The ever-present scar on his cheek which marred his face, the mop of blonde hair leading down to such cold eyes that you could mistake him for a corpse should he lay still enough.

Wearing the same black armoured clothes, hood pulled back to reveal his face, black gloves on his hands to avoid leaving prints, his shirt criss-crossed with what looked like leather straps, most likely holding knives and a holster at his waist. Probably with some kind of firearm, the Butcher always wore this when he was out looking for trouble.

His voice interrupted his thought process.

"Have a seat Roman, we have some catching up to do, and close the door, would you?" His cold clipped voice commanded respect and Roman found himself responding, closing the door behind him he took a tentative seat next to Neo, she had her hand on her weapon as he had on Melodic Cudgel.

The Butchers eyes bore into his for a few seconds, almost making him sweat before an almost disarming smile was flashed at them.

"Thank you for coming Roman, I was getting a little bored with little Neo here, while entertaining in her own right she isn't much of a talker" He smirked at the girl who gnashed her teeth in his direction.

Roman placed a hand on her leg to calm her, this is what he wanted, cause them to slip up, Roman wouldn't play his game if he could help it.

The Butcher rose slightly, pushing two of the glasses towards them before sitting back down in Romans comfy office chair, picking up the glass he had poured for himself and taking a quick sip.

"That's some high-class stuff Roman, I see you have been living the life without me eh?"

Roman chuckled, trying to disarm the tension and took the offered glass, Neo doing the same.

He raised it to his lips before pausing, his eyes zeroing on the Butcher who rolled his eyes.

"Its not poisoned Roman, I wouldn't be here to chat if I wanted you dead at this moment"

Roman nodded, seeing the logic and took a sip, the burning liquid helped to calm his nerves as he placed his glass back down on the desk.

Neo downed hers with a growl and almost slammed it down on the desk next to Romans, much to the amusement of the Butcher if his smirk was anything to go by.

Wow, the kid must have really got to her, Roman eyed her warily.

Roman sat back in his comfortable couch, his arms stretched out over the back, his weapon placed next to him, still in arms reach but not holding it, trying to show he wasn't worried.

"So, I got your love messages kid, if you wanted to meet up for a drink you could have just said, no need for the ominous messages" He cockily grinned at the kid who in turn gave nothing away, his face a mask and his eyes unreadable.

The Butcher tutted, interlocking his hands and resting them in front of him as he gave Roman a blank look "You know that's not why I'm here, drinking with an old friend would be preferable" he slammed both hands onto the desk making Roman and Neo jump due to how tense they were.

"If I can still call him an old friend you see"

Roman cringed a bit, yeah, the kid knew about him and the White Fang, or at least had a suspicion, best to play it calm, let the kid say it himself as not to incriminate himself.

"Oh? Didn't know you had updated our friendship status kid?" He queried with a roguish smirk.

The Butcher just stared at him in that emotionless way, like he was boring into Romans soul to seek answers.

"Let's say I've heard some unsavoury rumours about you" He downed the rest of his bourbon and unscrewed the top of the bottle, pouring himself another glass making Romans eye twitch.

Bastard was drinking all his bourbon.

Roman waved his hand dismissively "Don't tell me you have been reading the Vale news kid, you must know what shit they spew. Those type of news papers portrayed you as an assassin for the Vacuo government after all"

Roman downed the rest of his drink and leaned back as the Butcher took another swig.

"I think you know me better than that Roman"

"Do I now?" He challenged

The Butcher grinned "I should hope so, it's very coincidental isn't it old friend, how the White Fang have been stealing increasing amounts of dust, and the nefarious criminal" He spread his arms wide as if praising a deity "The great Roman Torchwick suddenly swaps from grand money and jewel heists, to dust heists. Why?"

The last part was delivered with force as well as mockery, Romans eyes narrowed as his heart pounded in his chest, wasn't that the question, why was he suddenly gathering dust? He could say to arm his goons, but that wouldn't make sense, Jaune or the butcher as he should refer to him in his current state knew full well that Roman had no ambition to declare war.

Sure, he liked being a renown criminal, but he didn't want open warfare in the street, it wasn't profitable.

Could he be stealing dust for a profit? Yes, he could be, but then who would he be selling it too… well the answer would be the White Fang, so that was out.

Roman Wracked his brain for answers as he saw the Butchers eyes narrowing, hand reaching for Crocea Mors as Roman reached for Melodic Cudgel, Neo grabbing her parasol.

"Before this gets ugly let me be clear, it wasn't my choice"

The butcher whipped a gun from his belt causing Neos eyes to widen as he fired multiple shots into her chest, Neo opened her parasol at the last moment, taking the bullets on her weapon, opening the parasol had blocked her view and she found the Butcher upon her in a moment.

Crocea Mors exploding in a shower of sparks as it met Neos blade, a quick exchange of sparks had her on the back foot as the Butcher pushed forward, Roman pointing Melodic Cudgel at the Butcher and firing, the bullet would have hit true were it not for the sheath at his hip which expanded into a shield.

The shot exploding upon impact as he slammed the shield into Neos face, using his weight to knock her off her feet as he dashed at Roman.

Before he knew it, he was in a frantic fight for his life, Melodic Cudgel desperately blocking Crocea Mors as the violent force behind each blow pushed Roman back, his shield being used offensively to knock Roman off balance as Neo re-joined the fight from the other side.

Roman stuck in a downward blow attempting to crack Melodic Cudgel into the Butchers skull, his blow met by Crocea Mors as the Butcher twisted his body to one side, putting his weight behind a shield strike which deflected a kick from Neo.

With a hard spinning leg sweep he kicked Romans legs from under him, with a curse he fell onto his back as the Butcher swung with all his might at Neo, Crocea Mors connecting with her thin blade as the floor cracked beneath the power, a quick shield swipe knocked the blade from Neos hand but she responded before the Butcher could capitalise, her leg snapping up for her heel to connect with his jaw, knocking him back slightly as she wrapped a leg around his, throwing her body weight into him she knocked him to the floor with herself straddling him.

The butcher smashed the hilt of Crocea Mors into her ribcage from the side knocking her from him as he span out of the way of another of Romans shots.

The shot smashed through the window and exploded blowing glass shards into the warehouse.

Roman cursed loudly as his eyes widened, moving his head at the last moment as a knife sailed past, slashing along his cheek which his aura took, just avoiding it burying itself in his right eye.

He recovered quickly to catch the Butchers shield to his chest, driving him back until he hit the wall.

Roman dropped Melodic Cudgel and smashed his elbow into the Butchers face, one, two, three times until blood dripped from his face, still he met those cold blue orbs as the Butcher headbutted Roman in the Jaw, followed by a quick knee into the side of Romans thigh making him groan before ducking the business end of Crocea Mors which imbedded into the wall where his head once was.

This was out of control.

Taking a strong punch to the gut Roman almost doubled over as the Butcher had let go of Crocea Mors, leaving it embedded in the wall as to strike hard at Roman.

He span and flashed a kick at Neo, catching her in the knee and almost snapping to back as she snarled and back flipped to regain her weapon.

The butcher slammed the side of his shield into Romans neck, causing the renown thief to gag and drop to the floor as the Butcher and Neo engaged in a fast display of violent combat.

Without his blade the Butcher used his shield as a weapon, sparks exploding as her blade met his shield and skulls smashed together.

"Kid!" Roman choked out "We can help each other, stop this!"

The Butcher dropped his shield and grabbed Neo by her hair, lifting her up into the air and smashing her face first through the coffee table in an explosion of gore from her lips and mouth, lifting her again he shamed her face through Romans alcohol cabinet causing a gasp of pain from Neo.

Neo kicked out hard, her heel smashing into the Butchers jaw making him let go as she grabbed the gun which the Butcher had earlier dropped and pointed, pulling the trigger quickly with a click.

Fuck out of bullets, smart bastard.

Neo went on the offensive, snapping kicks and punches at his mid-section and head as the Butcher blocked and deflected only for a low kick to connect with his knee, almost breaking it with the force as he gasped in pain, falling back with Neo pouncing on him with a snarl, her tiny hands reaching to throttle him were it not for one of his large hands grabbing her jaw.

Swinging with all his weight the Butcher smashed Neos head twice into the wooden desk, cracking it as she hammered her elbow into his mid-section making him grunt.

Roman stood with Melodic Cudgel in hand, the gun pointing directly at the Butchers head who snorted.

"Shoot and you kill us all" he snarled, eyes flashing to Romans alcohol cabinet which was now in tatters on the floor courtesy of the Butcher smashing Neo through it.

If he shot, the explosion would kill the Butcher and Neo, would Roman even escape the fire?

It was a risk he didn't want to take.

"I don't wanna do this kid!" Roman snarled

Neo froze on top of him as the Butcher lay still, his empty eyes looking up at Roman.

No fear, no hesitation in them, the Butcher would happily die right here, right now.

Roman snarled "Kid you know I aint keen on those fucking animals, I don't have a choice, I was recruited by their boss and she even wants to meet you!"

The Butcher held his gaze before he nodded

"I'll hear you out"

Nodding to a bloody Neo who climbed off him before limping back to the sofa and collapsing, panting hard as the Butcher rose to his feet, moving over to collect Crocea Mors from the wall and taking a seat behind Romans desk once more, he was bloody and bruised, looking worse for wear, they all were.

Roman stumbled over to his desk, snatching the bourbon from it as he took a long swig and collapsed next to Neo on the sofa.

"Her name is Cinder, she has the White Fang under her control as well as some other brats and has them and yours truly stealing dust, its like she is preparing for a war"

The Butcher stayed silent, breathing more heavily "And what does this have to do with me, last time I checked I don't clean up your messed Roman?" He snapped.

Roman growled and took another swig, giving the bottle to his demanding partner who practically snatched it from his hand and drank from it.

"Kid I want rid of the Fang as much as you, and this woman seems to have the Fang doing whatever she wants. Fighting the Fang could end up with her having you removed"

The Butcher shrugged, unconcerned "If she gets in my way then she will die from it"

Roman groaned "You are a dangerous man, enough to warrant respect from even her, but she is on a different level kid, fighting her is death, believe me I've tried" Roman closed his eyes and leaned back into the sofa, content with letting his guard down now he has the Butcher talking and interested.

The Butcher was silent for a few moments before speaking "Then I can kill her without a fight"

Roman flashed a grin and cracked an eye open "My thoughts exactly"

The Butcher rubbed a hand down his face "This is what you wanted isn't it? To turn myself and your boss against each other while you cower in the shadows, am I right?"

Roman bit back a curse, fuck the kid was bang on.

He sighed "Correct"

The Butcher cocked his head to one side as Neo panted, and finished off the bottle.

"I won't be played by you Roman" he growled

Neos eyes zeroed in on the Butcher, ready for more violence should it come to it, the Butcher with his hand on Crocea Mors, his body posture stiff as Roman held tightly onto Melodic Cudgel.

After a few tense moments of silence, the Butcher let go of that accursed weapon and sighed

"However, it seems we have a common enemy in her Roman, if I am to rid you of this problem then I'm expecting your support"

Neo relaxed and flashed the Butcher a grin as Roman sighed "looks like we have a deal then kid"

Really Roman had laid all his cards on the table now, the room was silent for a few tense seconds before the Butcher sighed and abruptly stood.

"Very well, send me information on when the raids will happen and make sure you uphold your part of the bargain"

The Butcher strode past them and to the door, as he opened it revealing the dim warehouse he turned at the last moment "Don't cross me Roman, or next time you won't see me coming" the door slammed shut behind him and the room descended into silence.

The only noise being the heavy breathing by himself and Neo

She panted at him and made a gesture, pointing to her head and circling to which Roman sighed "Yeah, I know the kid is crazy, and frankly we are too for trusting him, but it's the lesser of two evils as they say"

Neo sighed dramatically, rubbing her sore ribs as she moved to the freezer which Roman hoped to Oum was okay, the door was literally ripped off its hinges a second later and flung at the wall with a mighty crash.

No ice cream

Yeah, that figures.

He drew another cigar and sighed heavily as Neo silently screamed at the ceiling.

/

Jaune opened the door and turned at the last moment "Don't cross me Roman, or next time you won't see me coming" he exited and slammed the door shut behind him, closing off their view of him before he swayed heavily and leaned against the wall to Romans office for support.

His trained eyes saw movement in the darkness but a moment later it was gone, was that a flash of green?

Panting he pulled a flask from his pocket and took a quick sip, the strong alcohol burning his throat as it went down, calming his nerves slightly before he screwed the cap back on and limped towards the exit.

Her kick had done a number on his knee he realised as he limped out the metal door of the dim warehouse, of course it couldn't help but be dim, he had got the power cut before their little rendezvous.

Always pays to be prepared.

He sighed, unfeeling eyes angled towards the sky as it started to rain.

He growled and pulled his hood up, heading towards where he had left his clothes, Juniors.

Heading into the warehouse district and following the path Neo had led him he reached the metal fence blocking off the area from the public.

With a grunt and a wince against the pain he started to climb it, vaulting over the top he landed the other side and fell onto one knee.

Cursing loudly, he waited for a few seconds for the pain to subside before limping back towards the club.

Finally making it he climbed the metal stairs to the back entrance and pushed through the fire escape door.

Taking a left, he stumbled into the room Junior had lent to him for his stay.

Quickly changing into his normal clothes, he only stopped to clean the blood from his face and wince at the wicked bruise on his ribcage and knee.

Quickly getting fully dressed back into his more casual clothes that he had originally worn for this meeting with his "half-brother" or so his team believed.

He wore his grey trousers leading into a white buttoned dress shirt and a white waist length jacket, with black shoes.

He left his combat gear in the backroom, trusting Junior not to touch it until it was needed again as he headed through the corridors and out of the staff area.

Music assaulted his ears and strobe lights assaulted his vision.

He glanced towards the dance floor to see a large group of colourful people dancing to the music as the DJ with the bear mask span a new track.

He limped a bit to the bar, trying to keep his walk more natural as he couldn't let this be seen in Beacon or he would have to come up with some kind of reason for a sudden injury.

He sat down at the bar and was quickly noticed by Junior who rushed over.

"Ah Jaune, glad to see you back, I trust the meeting went well?"

He nodded at the man as Junior handed him a glass of clear alcohol which he downed.

"Good enough Junior, some trouble but that was expected, I've left my clothes here" His eyes narrowed at the man "You don't mind do you?"

Junior quickly swallowed and laughed "Of course not Jaune, you can keep them here as long as you like"

He grinned at the man and slapped some Lien down on the table, far more than the drink had cost which Junior quickly pocketed

"Pleasure doing business with you"

Jaune nodded and span on his seat turning to leave were it not for a hand grabbing his shoulder.

He turned slowly to meet the beaming smile and purple eyes of Yang Xiao Long who flashed her eyelashes prettily at him.

"Going so soon? Awh come on the night is still young, at least keep a pretty girl company?"

He groaned internally but adopted a charismatic smile and allowed her to bring him back to the bar.

He just wanted to sleep off his injuries, but he needed to hold his cover.

Besides, his eyes roamed up and down her form.

There were worse ways to spend his time.

/

Emerald Sustrai sprinted from the warehouse under cover of darkness having witnessed the Butcher first hand.

Her heart pounded, sweat poured down her as she ran as fast as she could.

"Must warn Cinder" she panted as she reached the fence.

Her eyes strayed left as she saw him, the monster who had fought Roman and Neo to a standstill, he reached the fence before climbing and vaulting over the top to land in a crouch with a low curse.

He was injured she realized, it helped to calm her nerves a bit.

She waited until he had left before climbing herself to land on the other side.

Sprinting into Vale as fast as she could.

Roman that coward!

He was planning to betray Cinder, after all that woman had done for her she wouldn't allow it, Cinder would know.

Finally she stopped, entering the hotel she was staying at, pulling the key from her pocket and barging into her room before locking it behind her.

She pulled her scroll out and typed a message to Cinder.

" _I've observed the meeting, the Butcher is dangerous, enough to fight both Roman and Neo to a stalemate, Roman seeks to betray you using the Butcher!"_

She panted as she lay on the sofa and only had a few minutes to wait for the response.

" _Of course he is, its nothing to worry about, I expected this. If he is as dangerous as you say then you and Mercury will come with me to our meeting, I doubt they will try anything stupid in those odds._

 _Roman and Neo are cowards remember and the Butcher is most likely unhinged, its under control.  
Anything else to report?"_

Emerald quickly wrote another message

" _The Butcher intends to take you out without a fight"_

The message was quick

" _Interesting, perhaps he is more dangerous than I gave him credit for, you have done well Emerald."_

She smiled as she tossed her scroll onto the sofa and headed to bed.

They are no threat, nothing is to Cinder.

* * *

 **Finally round to the meeting between Jaune and Roman, hope you all enjoyed.  
**

 **Leave a review to let me know what you think.**

 **Until next time**

 **Peace**


End file.
